I had no intention of talking up The Broken String this week, but everything changed when I saw Bishop Allen last week and became hopelessly obsessed with this album. A lot to be said about this band was mentioned in my review of the show, most notably that one of the reasons I love them so is that they simply cannot be categorized.
Somehow, some way, Bishop Allen completely flew under my radar last year... Band core members/founders Justin Rice & Christian Rudder hit a wall in recording the follow-up to their debut Charm School. After stumbling across a discarded piano (the Muse behind the track Corazon) and attempting to learn songs on the liberated instrument, Rice & Rudder entered into a double-dog-dare kinda situation and ended up goading each other into releasing one EP every month. Eleven EPs of four songs each (August's disc was a live show recording) is an impressive feat for even the most prolific of artists. The fact that nearly 100% of the material on those EPs is pure gold is just icing on the cake. Nine of The Broken String's twelve tracks were culled and re-worked from the EPs.
Though some are stronger than others, there is not a weak track on this album. Justin Rice's tenor resonates throughout, and although tenuous at times, it works for these songs; Christian Rice is brilliant as multi-instrumentalist/vocalist. Out of the whirlwind couple of weeks that has seen me "discovering" them, listening incessantly to The Broken String, Charm School and the EPs, and most spectacularly seeing them live, Bishop Allen have cemented a spot as one of my favorite bands at the moment.
Bishop Allen - The Broken String
available: July 24, 2007
Dead Oceans
1 comment:
agreed. things are what you make of them.
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