CD cover - Broken Records, The Earth Begins To Part. Photo / Supplied
Ratings:
***
Verdict:
Over the top rock from Scottish seven-piece.
In order to come up with their oddball style of flamboyant rock, the seven members of Edinburgh band Broken Records use an arsenal of instruments to rival bands like Arcade Fire and Beirut - although there is no euphonium.
Add to the mix singer Jamie Sutherland, who sounds like a cross between The Killers' Brandon Flowers, The Cure's Robert Smith and former flouncing Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, and it makes for a dramatic outpouring.
Sutherland doesn't just sing, this lad sources his wail deep from within himself.
However, whereas bands like Arcade Fire can be thrilling in their musical antics, Broken Records often come across as emotionally overwrought - and on the title track, like a wailing bunch of drama queens, to be brutally honest.
And If Eilert Loevborg Wrote A Song, It Would Sound Like This - he's a character in Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, in case you're wondering - is particularly over-the-top.
For all that, Until The Earth Begins To Part is an ambitious undertaking, which you have to give them a pat on the back for.
But Broken Records sound best when they reel the pomp in a little, like they do on If The News Makes You Sad Don't Watch It, a gypsy-rock take on Pulp's Common People, and A Promise, an aching and fragile piano piece that escalates into a rousing drums and strings climax.
Joanna Hunkin
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