Big Echo, the sophomore release from Berkeley-based band The Morning Benders, takes a familiar sound and puts it on steroids. It's beachy - but shoots for more musical depth than similar bands in shallower waters. It's youthful, but its lyrics take on romanticism and reality checks in equal measure. And most notably, its execution exhibits an emotional range and poignancy that can move you to places and memories like any remarkable work of music can.
The Morning Benders find a way to preserve cohesiveness in Big Echo while ensuring a distinctiveness among the tracks. Part of what helps them do this is the group's unabashed willingness to layer and arrange as true composers - they set their own standards and aim to please their own tastes, which just happen to be worth standing and clapping for much of the time. This mixture of freedom and calculation is what every art appreciator craves, and The Morning Benders deliver like the ice cream man.
Take the album's opener and standout "Excuses," which tells of the conundrum of making a physical relationship transition into a companionship that lasts to old age. Its classic 1950s melody works to complement the "I-want-to-marry-you-someday" message, and is enhanced by an injection of fresh modern contributions and experimentation.
The subtleties of sounds in this piece launch it from good to phenomenal and are best presented in the "Yours Truly" live recording session of the song. Lead singer Chris Chu orchestrated 30 or so of the band's Bay Area buddies in a small, intimate recording suite to layer multiple strings, piano, drums, guitars and vocals into a wall of breathtaking sound.
Big Echo would not be what it is without the influence of Chris Taylor, the bassist in indie band Grizzly Bear who is listed as the album's co-producer alongside Chu. The production parallels between the two bands aren't hard to detect, especially in "Stitches" - a hollow, haunting track with crooning background vocals similar to ones in the Grizzly Bear's popular "Two Weeks."
Another standout track, and my own personal favorite, is "All Day Day Light." When played loudly, as it demands, it packs thrilling guitar riffs and envelops listeners in a wash of summer glory as big as Pacific waves.
"Promises" is a catchy ode, relating the angst that goes along with growing up too fast, and pointedly brings that message across in its unsettling music video, which features 8- to 10-year-olds drinking wine, eating fancy meals together and participating in Bonnie and Clyde-type violence.
Big Echo is one of this season's best releases and the musical equivalent of a fudge sundae on a hot summer day; I was hooked at first taste, which just happened to be Big Echo's fourth track, "Cold War (Nice Clean Fight)." While it runs a meager 1:44, the song left me wanting more for the same reason the rest of the tracks on Big Echo did
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
