Denver, Colorado’s Broken Record is an exciting indie rock band with an emo slant to it. The bands vocals are similar to Saves The Day, Silversun Pickups, Piebald and other bands with more of a soprano vocal. Musically at moments it’s a little bit Get Up Kids and then the next moment more My Bloody Valentine, a mix of pop and shoegaze. I would say it fits neatly into the category of contemporary Indie Rock / Shoegaze and Dream Pop with heavy moments of emo tinged climaxes. It’s really great how the band takes the last 30 years of music and blends it into something that sounds classic but modern all at once.
This is the newest release from Really Rad Records a label that is discerning and usually offers up very high quality bands. So it’s no surprise that they have yet another great find in Broken Record.
The band says of itself that they defy genre but give these adjectives to accurately describe their overall vibe, “ Shimmering, chorus-drenched leads simultaneously evoke both the post-emo alt-rock of Turnover and Title Fight and the 80s post-punk groups that served as those bands’ muses. Gigantic, fuzzy choruses bring to mind the most triumphant singalongs of 90s indie rock. Soaring vocals and tasteful theatricality demonstrate an unabashed affinity for radio-ready emo acts of the early 2000s like Bayside and Taking Back Sunday. The result is a record that is far beyond the sum of its parts, delicately balancing each element in perfect harmony. Whether it’s in the bending, shoegaze-informed riffs or the propulsive, power-pop refrains, Nothing Moves Me deftly maneuvers the razor-thin tightrope between experimentation and cohesion.”
From the single “Blueprinting” I can’t argue any of that and the result is an enjoyable single that has just enough drive and angst to excite any fan of the genres mentioned. As the band says often, it has the comfort of familiarity with the allure of the audience having to take the journey along with the band through the album to see how they used their extensive music knowledge to craft modern but familiar music.