Broken Records new album Weights & Pulleys is definitely more of the same from the Edinburgh based band. The album has many of the same themes and carries on the same sound as 2010's Let Me Come Home. Cynics may find a real sense of irony in the fact that a band called Broken Records can be referred to as 'repetitive', however, when the same band are producing albums of this quality, those cynics are easy to ignore.
Broken Records must be getting fed up of being compared to Bruce Springsteen and Arcade Fire (although why would they?) but it’s a really unavoidable comparison. The second track on the album, Winterless Son, has a clear Springsteen influence running through it. With its bouncy rhythm and catchy melodies, it has already proved to be a real crowd pleaser at the band's live shows.
The bands rhythm section gets another chance to flourish on So Long, So Late where a captivating bass line and thunderous drums carry the song to a rousing climax. Album standout Nothing Doubtful shows how diverse the band is with haunting vocals combined with the trumpet which are beautiful to listen to and a far cry from the albums previous tracks.
Weights & Pulleys is a well rounded album, that, in the same vein as bands such as This Will Destroy You and Sigur Ros, has the ability to make everything you are doing seem a lot more significant. A solid album that further proves everything we already knew about Broken Records when it comes to their quality songwriting, excellent musicianship and unbreakable consistency.
- Stuart Thompson
Broken Records - Weights & Pulleys is out now via J Sharp Records and can be downloaded via all good online music retails, or purchased on CD or vinyl in all good record shops, or you can buy direct from the band here.
