Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not their best work, 31 Aug 2007
If their last album, Balls, was the sound of a band in a transitional period, Hello Love, their 3rd full length album, proves that sometimes the conflict is needed to make great records. The Broken Family Band has always been a band torn between the tongue in cheek country style and the more earnest indie, but it always worked so well. Here they sound a little uncomfortable with trying to be justa rock band.
It all starts off well enough. Opener "Leaps" is appropriately sprightly, with nagging guitars and a rare swagger. They almost carry the trick off twice, on the second song "Love Your Man, Love Your Woman", but the song never quite delivers on its promise, with chugging guitars and a slow, deliberate pounding drumbeat threatening to explode into life at any minute, which it never does.
But soon the real problem with their new sound is exposed- despite their best efforts, for better or for worse, they are still a country band, and they try to cover this up by needlessly laying on distortion on slower songs (Hey Captain is a lovely ballad punctuated by a pointless feedback drenched crescendo)- the attempt to dress up the songs, which are essentailly the same just of a lower quality, is thinly veiled.
Still, it's not an album without its merits. Dancing On The 7th floor has passion and energy, propelled by unexpectedly urgent drumming and a great chorus and Give And Take is a lovely country ballad, the kind that made them so great, but unspoilt by any attempts to make the band sound like something they're not.
Hello Love is largely the sound of a band trying to be something they're not, with mixed results.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
About time, 2 Sep 2007
After 3 full length albums, TBFB have finally knocked out an absolute blinder! They've been getting more 'rock' with each release (one every year, or more?) and this sounds like they've hit their stride. If you're not familiar with them, they play simple indie rock songs with interesting melodic quirks, a spiky edge missing from most indie rock bands (desperate for fame bands?) and the coolest lyrics I've come across since Nick Cave. Hello Love is a collection of songs about love, but without ever sounding cheesey or wet.
Leaps is like The Modern Lovers with more balls (Balls was TBFB's previous album - great sound, weak songs), Love Your Man Love Your Woman sounds like Pavement tackling a Slade song, So Many Lovers is like the Beautiful South tackling Pavement, Julian is the only weak song for my money, Dont Change Your Mind is The Tindersticks gone emo, Dancing On 4th Floor is the Coral gone punk, You Get Me is just really pretty, Hello Captain is like Gorky's Z.M. AND Mogwai, Give And Take is Jeffrey Lewis gone Bonny Prince Billy, Little Justice is a strange heavy folkrock song and Seven Sisters is even more Pavement and Sparklehorse.
People have misconceptions about TBFB because they are a supposedly country band but this isn't a country (or even alt country!) album - its just damn good indie rock, done better than anybody else at the moment is doing.
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