All that woodshedding sure paid off for
Bishop Allen
. The Brooklyn-by-way-of-Boston quartet undertook an ambitious one-EP-a-month project in 2006, self-releasing a staggering 58 songs over that time. Despite no label or publicist and the modest arrangements of the material, the blogosphere picked up the PR slack, eventually earning the band kudos from
NPR
and
The Wall Street Journal
, among others.
The Broken String
ups the ante considerably, reworking ten songs from the EP cycle and two new cuts into lustrous
indie pop
notable for its versatility, clever lyrics, and offbeat instrumentation. The songs suggest a host of touchstones, from the
orchestral
drama of a scaled-back
Arcade Fire
and can't-miss hooks of
the Shins
to
Stephin Merritt
-like wordplay and narrative flights a la
the Decemberists
. Songwriters
Justin Rice
Christian Rudder
may not quite scale those heights, but in the hybrid they've come up with something nearly as intoxicating.
"Monitor"
opens the record with
Rice
contrasting the Civil War ironclad and sailors' courage with playing on-stage. It's an audacious conceit, but the song's slow-burn build into cascading piano runs, symphonic percussion, and joyous choruses makes it more elegiac than pretentious. That song bleeds into the metronomic guitar riffs and driving
pop
beat of
"Rain,"
setting the table for the diversity that follows.
"Click, Click, Click, Click,"
with its infectious bouncing-ball beat and nylon-stringed guitar runs, is surely coming to a Kodak commercial soon, while
"Like Castanets"
turns from twangy shuffle to Caribbean-flavored
calypso
, the marimbas, glockenspiel, and muted trumpet making for a delightful mini-vacation.
Darbie Nowatka
's gentle vocal turn on
"Butterfly Nets"
is an effective mid-record change of pace and a rare instance in
rock
where you'll find a saxophone and ukulele cohabitating. Even the brief vignette
"Shrinking Violet"
and its oboe/banjo counterpoint is another example of
's imaginative arrangements. Just about the only misstep is
"Middle Management,"
a straight-ahead
power pop
tune more suited to the band's debut,
Charm School
-- it's not a bad song, but the bar's been set much higher everywhere else on
. ~ John Schacht