Broken Bells, Sam

Recently, I've been infatuated with the idea that I'll never enjoy any piece of art, music especially, as much as I did when I was in high school. Taste evolves and nothing is as pure as listening to music that you bought with your own money when you're thirteen years old.  

Hunkering down to sit silently and listen to an album while not driving or doing the dishes but only focusing on the CD jacket is an experience I don't have time for anymore, nor do I know if I would enjoy anyway. 

That past taste was not discerning: Fastball, the Beatles, and Saves the Day held equal roles in my development. But it all mattered because it was new and it was art and it was beautiful.

My unfocused taste now requires new music to sound exactly what I used to love or be challenging and different. If it's too much of a retread, I'm impatient.

Broken Bells by Broken Bells sounds like a retread to me. If I listened to this album even five years ago, Broken Bells would have hoodwinked me. But I have a baby and a job and a wife and a mortgage now. I have no time for pretend instruments, pretend prog rock, and pretend falsetto (except for me doing karaoke to "Funky Town").

Empty platitudes don't do it for me anymore. I don't need Broken Bells' advice on how to feel regret for my youth, especially when that advice is at odds with each other. Tracks 1 and 2 contradict each other: "The High Road" laments "It's too late to change your mind," while "Vaporize" pacifies by saying "It's not too late to feel a little more than life." 

Am I out of time or do I have plenty of it? Either way I'm not spending it on music that sounds like bad Shins (and do I even really like the Shins anyway?).

That said, I don't want to hate everything new forever. I'm not a Sir Jorah-esque Stoneman. I can still dig Broken Bells' dance beats on the last two tracks, but I also can't get past one of the songs is called "Mongrel Heart." 

Overall, I liked songs on this album that were more straightforward and fun. I don't mind complicated progressions (I went to the fucking symphony last week). But maybe I'm over indie prog—just because a song has 16 parts doesn't make it interesting, it may mean that none of those parts is strong enough to stand on its own.