A Broken Robot
A Broken Robot Promo
Monday 27th of April 2009
"We have nothing going for us" sing Southend-on-Sea's A Broken Robot, a line that doesn't exactly hold true for the band themselves as they can certainly write a catchy tune. The problem is; "catchy" in this case produces a depressing sense of Déjà vu.
All four tracks follow a similar structure of a short interlude to begin, a pause, the main part of the song and then a sort of breakdown after which the song appears to become more urgent and starts to soar to a crescendo of sorts. This formulaic construction might be forgiveable if it wasn't for the fact that A Broken Robot is yet another band to embrace that indie sound made popular by bands like Arctic Monkeys and The Wombats making them highly expendable to anyone with a desire for originality.
More frustratingly, the band seems to have followed the trend of taking the advice of "write about what you know" a little too seriously. Certainly, singing about the ins and outs of day to day life, when done well, can be extremely uplifting but for the most part songs about bopping about in sweaty nightclubs, break-ups and the like are just tedious and give rise to "deep" observations that are anything but, such as, "All my friends are bottles and cans and empty cigarette packs". What ever happened to the wider world, the bigger issues or poetic language? Shouldn't music transcend ordinary existence in some way rather than simply reminding us of what we already know?
If your answer to that last question is a firm yes, avoid A Broken Robot but don't be too surprised if you hear radio one is championing them as the 'next big thing'.
Author: Jonathan M
Label: Self-Released
Found in: Record Reviews
Official Rating
We rated this record 2.5 out of 5.