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Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor has his production paws all over San Franciscan quartet The Morning Benders’ second full-length effort, and while Big Echo has more than pastiche to offer, a great deal of it still sounds a bit too familiar.
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Big Echo is hardly a bad record, and is not without its charms. It contains a clutch of songs and moments that long-time fans will cherish for years to come, yet is grievously unable to sustain that excellence in light of such a wealth of new circumstances.
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As sources of inspiration go, a band could do far worse. But the album fails to use this already familiar point of view to explore any uncharted paths.
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Unfortunately, the band lacks Grizzly Bear’s songwriting chops. After that early-album peak, the tracks begin to sound like undercooked compositions coasting on bells and whistles.
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While The Morning Benders navigate the unstable boundary between tried-and-true pop structure and spacey excursions, the songs fall apart when they lean too far in either direction.
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UncutIt's manically busy, demanding you strain to find the tune beneath layers of mellotrons, flutes and timpani. [Jul 2010, p.115]
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These songs are ultimately undone by their ambition in an attempt to turn what could be pleasantly ephemeral fare into moment-defining anthems.
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Under The RadarBig Echo is a challenging album that coheres in bits, but searches more often than it finds. [Winter 2010, p.64]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 15
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Mixed: 3 out of 15
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Negative: 0 out of 15
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Oct 28, 2010