My initial disappointment with this record was entirely my own fault. I'd taken it home from Spillers the day it came out fully expecting it to be an incredible, life-changing album; it wasn't. It's a good record, but I'd let my expectations rise too high. Let's look at the reasons why:
A short while before Broken came out, I'd heard the song Revival from Soulsavers' second album and fallen in love. I have one Screaming Trees album so already knew Mark Lanegan had an incredible voice but on that song, with its subtle mix of folk, gospel and electronica, it was perfect. I knew Broken featured Lanegan on even more of the songs so I let myself dream that it was going to be an album of songs like Revival. Of course there are hints of that song or, more accurately, Soulsavers' style throughout but at no point does it come together for me as brilliantly as Revival.
The second reason was a 7" record I bought a week and a half before Broken came out. I'll write about the Sunrise / You Will Miss Me When I Burn 7" at a later date, but the short version is this: Soulsavers and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy singing a song written by Lanegan and Soulsavers and Lanegan covering Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's excellent You Will Miss Me When I Burn. There's a lot of awesome things squeezed into that small piece of vinyl. Both songs were excellent and it's almost a shame that they didn't both make it onto the LP.
Finally, I'd seen the list of other musicians contributing to the album which included Mike Patton, Richard Hawley and Jason Pierce from Spiritualized (at this point I hadn't started listening to Spiritualized yet so I didn't really appreciate his appearance or note the influence they clearly had on Soulsavers). You can see why I was getting excited.
And overall, Broken is a good record. It just had very high expectations to meet. There are a lot of great songs on - just have a listen to Unbalanced Pieces, You Will Miss Me When I Burn, or By My Side. There are some slower moments that don't quite cut it for me (All the Way Down, Can't Catch the Train) and the opener, Death Bells, came across as a slightly overcooked rock song. The gospel vocals that worked so well on Revival appear again on Some Misunderstanding and Shadows Fall, and are nice, but generally it feels a bit long, particularly on the second record.
I've since picked up the other Soulsavers albums and I enjoy them. I think they benefit from my initial disappointment with this record - I went into them expecting less and they gave me more. After I first played Broken I wrote a status on Facebook (it was 2009) about how I shouldn't go into albums expecting them to change my life. A colleague thought it was ridiculous that a record could be life-changing, but they most certainly can be. However, lowering my hopes is a lesson I mostly adhere to still and it's made it all the more enjoyable when an album has completely blown me away.
Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 13
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 18/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
