Skip to content
DVDfever.co.uk – The Broken Family Band: Please And Thank You CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Cooking Vinyl Records
- Released: April 2009
- Rating: 4/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Five albums in, still no sign of TBFM making the big- time.
Please And Thank You is not exactly a step forward for this Cambridge band. You could put this CD on once and forget about it, as much of it is quite forgettable. In the past they tried to engage fans with an east Anglian slant on Americana, which really does take some doing. Also, theyve recently down-sized, losing their girl members, leaving them as a more conventional rock quartet, losing much of their spice in the process.
Its not all bad news though as they try-out their new format, but some of the instrumental detail has gone. They seem to have become a more rock orientated band, trying to branch out with some tricky moments.They havent quite nailed a great song, yet, but there are glimpses of what they might become which comes late on the album, like the punk pop of Stay Friendly, showing acute elements of dynamic experimentation.
Opener Please Yourself does retain their nods to Americana that includes a Led Zeppelin riff combined with shades of Primal Screams Country Girl. Again on Salivating, a juicy rocker, the riff is quite infectious and falls into serious foot-tapper and theres some seriously understated licks to give it a push, but then the banality of St.Albans which is only highlighted by swearing, drags things into mediocrity.
Things take an even bigger nose-dive on limp You Did A Bad Thing, punctuated by ghostly guitar wails. As if it couldnt get any worse, the duplicity of sentiments and emotions make Cinema Vs. House a real screwball track I love you, I dont love you , thrown in, about the choice of going to the pictures, or not. Mh.Thankfully, Borrowed Time has some semblance of a decent catchy tune with some meaningful lyrics.
A further improvement comes with country-rocker Mimi which has by far the best song construction and great instrumentation showing subtlety in the key shifts, but Son Of The Man lets the side down again as it rambles aimlessly.The Girls In This Town rescues the album, again. This romping and catchy pop rocker with its whopping chorus points them in the right direction once again.
The verdict: Room for improvement.
Weblinks:cookingvinyl.com /thebrokenfamilyband.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Please Yourself
2. Salivating
3. St.Albans
4. You Did A Bad Thing
5. Cinema vs. House
6. Borrowed Time
7. Mimi
8. Dont Bury Us
9. Stay Friendly
10. Son Of The Man
11. The Girls In This Town
12. Old WoundsView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.