Broken West
Ah cool clear water. There's nothing that quenches the thirst like it and yet in some instances water just doesn't satisfy. In fact, we are sometimes irritated by its presence, as when ordering a drink at a bar only to find the acrid bite of the alcohol is a bit too smooth. We call such a beverage "watered down" and those two words are the best descriptor for The Broken West's second full-length Now or Heaven.
Sonically, Now or Heaven is a gem: the Los Angeles-based quartet has polished everything from the shimmering guitars, to the thumping drums and bass and the perfect harmonies, and so on and so on and so on. Ultimately it is this sense of polish that drives it all over the edge. Perhaps one could argue that power pop of the sort The Broken West is peddling here necessarily avoids risk taking, but then one would have to avoid discussions of U2 and R.E.M. and other pop-oriented bands that really made the genre their own.
There is one hugely popular band that The Broken West reminds strongly of and that band is Coldplay. If we can rightly call Coldplay a kind of watered down U2-and I think we can-then we can rightly call The Broken West a kind of watered down Coldplay. This is all to say that The Broken West is the musical equivalent of tap water, a fact that begs another question: We already have one Coldplay. Do we really need another?
Standout Tracks: "Gwen, Now and Then," "Perfect Games" CHRISTIAN KIEFER
