The Third & Best Album By Broadcast...

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I'm a total sucker for this stuff. Broadcast has figured out the formula that gives me goose bumps and immediately makes me feel comfortable and scared, yet so far away from something perfect. Trish Keenan's bewitching vocals make me melt. Dissonant drum machines, crisp guitar lines, the psychedelic sheen over it all... it's just perfect for me. But that's what works for me, and music should not be judged solely on the emotional impact that it delivers to the listener. But maybe an exception should be made here. Broadcast makes the music that will best make you feel sad and happy at once; music that confuses you and makes you unsure about your own unimportant self; music that makes you feel comfortable because others are uncomfortable with you.

Now for the record. It starts with a slow, descending song called "I Found the F." Short, melodious, yet repetitive. That's kind of the theme that Broadcast has utilized throughout their entire existence: taking advantage of the warming effects of repetition. Like the Velvet Underground, Broadcast has realized that a song can be terribly simple and terribly complex all at once. At any given moment, not much is actually happening in "I Found the F." The song is really just vocals, various beats, eerie guitar plucks... it's actually pretty sparse. And the same goes with "Black Cat," which has a similar "descending" feel to it... just a simple guitar line, repeating throughout the song. It is another perfect balance between dissonance (random synth lines) and thick harmonies, all melding together. On another level, even the vocals are repetitive: "the Black Cat, the Black Cat/ curious I run, curious I run," and so on. And for the first two songs, Broadcast stays pretty much the same: hypnotizing the listener through simple, flowing pieces.

Their more elaborate side comes out with Tender Buttons, which is absolutely drenched in stunning arrangements, yet still introduces an element of spontaneity to the music. "Tears in the Typing Pool" is a gorgeous song because it strips the production back to reveal Keenan's amazing vocal talent. "Corporeal" has a sound edging on electro-clash. It has a hazier synth in it, but is still accompanied by those compelling soothing bouncy guitars. "Bit 35" is a sort of intermission, as Broadcast changes their song a little after the end of the piece. They start to kind of fall apart. "Arc of a Journey" utilizes more random orchestrations, synthesizers, and a drone quality than any other piece. The song pours out of the speakers like honey -- smooth, elegant, and so sweet. "Michael a Grammar" is a cheerier version of "Arc of a Journey," as it is one of the few pieces that has a more melodious synthesizer part. Usually, Broadcast likes to use their electronic instruments as musical punctuation. It's as though the distorted keyboard is actually just an exclamation mark or question mark at the end of Keenan's sentence. But in "Michael a Grammar," the group actually relies heavier on an interplay between the guitar, bass, and synths, leaving the vocals as a more secondary element to the song.

It was only when I heard "Subject to the Ladder" that I heard a close relation between My Bloody Valentine and Broadcast. Broadcast is certainly sparser than anything My Bloody Valentine would ever come out with, but they both love to milk repetition and end their songs in a pseudo-cacophony rather than a melodious resolve. This is especially clear with "Goodbye Girls," a song that can't seem to stay in one place for very long. Dissonant sometime, clashing at others, but overall very aesthetically pleasing. "You and Me in Time" is the most reminiscent to me of something Broadcast did from HaHa Sound, their last record. It has a more lo-fi sound, and a sort of dizzying effect on the listener... more hypnotic than some of the other songs, but certainly appropriate for an album "wind down." "I Found the End" makes me sad. It's distant and eerie, which is what Broadcast does best. An echo-y horn synth wraps around me and gives me goose bumps before it simply dies out. I did hope, though, that Keenan would grace the last song for me, but she didn't. Maybe that's most fitting, though. Maybe Broadcast wants to make it clear that her vocals are a misleading central part of their sound. So much of their music relies on dissonance and harshness and abruptness, and Keenan's vocals do not really share any of their characteristics. So the band probably likes the make use of the obvious contrast between their vocals and their instrumentation.

Tender Buttons is indeed Broadcast's best album. Instead of having a few excellent songs per album as they normally do, the group has matured a little more and stresses the importance of having a truly cohesive final product to sell. None of the songs seem unnecessary or bland, but they each have a slightly different effect. Some make me feel confused and depressed while other make me feel light and optimistic. Everything meshes perfectly, and the group cannot be described as just being 60s nostalgia-obsesses musicians anymore. Their style, it has become increasingly clear, runs more towards the Velvet Underground, the United States of America, and My Bloody Valentine than any 60s pop tune ever did. Broadcast has found it's niche, and they executed it perfectly.

Review By Exploding Plastic.

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