Album review

The Broken Family Band - Cold Water Songs

Following the promise of last year's mini LP The King Will Build A Disco, TBFB's nefariously enchanted pot of country, weird pop and deconstructed folk remains a heady brew. With the Folk Orchestra's Timothy Victor at the controls, and Samantha (Be Good Tanyas) Parton guesting on "Devil In The Details", this carries the same strain of bastardised rural tradition as labelmates Candidate, a sexual twistedness akin to Lyndon Morgans' Songdog ("Don't Leave That Woman Unattended"; "Hitting Women") and wordplay reminiscent of Stephen Malkmus. Daubs of pedal-steel and banjo add allure. File somewhere between Pavement and the prairie.

Rating: 4 / 10


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Bruce Springsteen, Tame Impala, Rodriguez, George Clinton, John Fogerty, Prince and George Jones in new Uncut


I would have bought the issue of Melody Maker in which I first read about Bruce Springsteen on my way into the art school in Newport, where in March 1973 I was in my last term, only a few months away from moving to London and not long after that fetching up on MM as a junior reporter/feature...

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