One of the worst phrases to bring up in a discussion about music is "all their songs sound the same." Most likely, anyone who has seriously spoken about their favorite bands with a group of friends has heard this criticism leveled with impunity. Every band has their particular style, with its own tweaks, nuances, and subtleties that may not be readily apparent to a hostile ear. That's why it pains me so to put forward this accusation in regards to Bishop Allen's latest release, The Broken String. While listening through this album, I often found it difficult to segregate individual tracks, rather than digest each simmering progression as one long, enduring song. In fairness, perhaps this is the vibe that the band's core members, Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, were going for. However, when playing this disc, each track faded into the next and it felt like one extended jam session that started off capturing the crowd's attention until it slowly dwindled off and eventually fell flat.
Rice and Rudder do try to resuscitate the ailing sound with a kicking jumpstart of an anthem towards the end of the album entitled, "Middle Management," which was an enjoyable track, but by that point, it's a bit too little too late. Each guitar hit trumped up behind a standard but well-executed drum beat may get your toes tapping if you have not already been put to sleep by the first nine tracks. The music is not bad, but simply uninspiring. You will never hear these songs and think, "that was terrible." Yet, at best, most of these tracks are background noise at a small get together, catchy and sweet enough to liven up the room so long as no one pays too close attention.
The musical style might easily give you a tooth ache from the saccharine sweetened twist the listener imbibes with each sugary note. At times, the group seems to be channeling a stripped down Beck or Ben Folds filtered through a lollipop The lyrics are simple, generally inoffensive, but far from compelling. They seem to offer "slice of life" style prose with little insight or meaningful exposition to be found. When they do stray from this path, as they do with songs like "Butterfly Nets" where a velvet tongued woman takes over lead singing duties and a saxophone drives the accompaniment, the results are above average, if not outright grand. However, such gems are few and far between.
The songs do have a pleasant "singing 'round the campfire" sensibility to them. The vocals, however, tend to wear on you, not quite living up to the standard of a professional release. Each line is warbled with a rough, breathy, high-pitched tone that seems harmless enough at track one, but which begins to grate halfway through the disc. Nine of these tracks are culled from a previous project by Bishop Allen where they recorded and released a new EP every month for a year. Perhaps in this rigor and churn of music, what made their songs special in the first place became diluted. Regardless, overall, The Broken String is an album with the occasional highlight spread out among a sea of dim bulbs.
Rice and Rudder do try to resuscitate the ailing sound with a kicking jumpstart of an anthem towards the end of the album entitled, "Middle Management," which was an enjoyable track, but by that point, it's a bit too little too late. Each guitar hit trumped up behind a standard but well-executed drum beat may get your toes tapping if you have not already been put to sleep by the first nine tracks. The music is not bad, but simply uninspiring. You will never hear these songs and think, "that was terrible." Yet, at best, most of these tracks are background noise at a small get together, catchy and sweet enough to liven up the room so long as no one pays too close attention.
The musical style might easily give you a tooth ache from the saccharine sweetened twist the listener imbibes with each sugary note. At times, the group seems to be channeling a stripped down Beck or Ben Folds filtered through a lollipop The lyrics are simple, generally inoffensive, but far from compelling. They seem to offer "slice of life" style prose with little insight or meaningful exposition to be found. When they do stray from this path, as they do with songs like "Butterfly Nets" where a velvet tongued woman takes over lead singing duties and a saxophone drives the accompaniment, the results are above average, if not outright grand. However, such gems are few and far between.
The songs do have a pleasant "singing 'round the campfire" sensibility to them. The vocals, however, tend to wear on you, not quite living up to the standard of a professional release. Each line is warbled with a rough, breathy, high-pitched tone that seems harmless enough at track one, but which begins to grate halfway through the disc. Nine of these tracks are culled from a previous project by Bishop Allen where they recorded and released a new EP every month for a year. Perhaps in this rigor and churn of music, what made their songs special in the first place became diluted. Regardless, overall, The Broken String is an album with the occasional highlight spread out among a sea of dim bulbs.
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