And The Broken - Changes
It is early morning. You used to live alone in your small apartment, and now you are moving. Everything around you is half empty and half full. The cardboard boxes are stacked by the door. The morning sunlight seeps in through the brown blinds. It’s your last morning in your old room. You pick up your phone to play some music. Cue the latest album by And The Broken, Changes. And The Broken’s debut album, Changes, is an indie-folk record that touches upon some relevant themes like nostalgia, growth, identity, time, and more. It features chamber instrumentation and a very warm, intimate production. The songs on the album have elements from genres like folk, rock, pop, ambient, and some orchestral touches sprinkled here and there, too. The record has a homespun vibe rather than that of mainstream pop. This makes the record stand out as reflective and hopeful, not dwelling on gloom but oscillating between shadow and light. The first track on the list, Into the Black is a strong atmospheric opener. The piece has a quiet vibe to it. It feels like one is listening to something being built from scratch right then and there. The vocals are very emotive, and the arrangement is haunting, which sets the tone perfectly. The second song, Changes is the title track and features heavy instrumentation. You hear tunes from the saxophone and mellotron. It adds warmth and reinforces this feel of nostalgia. The follow-up tracks on the lineup, June and Running Out of Time give the album its identity. The tracks work with heavy verse, even if the instrumentation layering is different in both. Running Out of Time has a specific character to it, especially. The song is one of the more hooky tracks and has a strong folk-pop sensibility attached to it. The next songs in line, Rust and Polaroid, are strong on nostalgia. These tracks add texture to the album and broaden the listening experience. The instrumentation is raw and delicate, and that gives space for the lyrics to land. It makes the album emotionally resonant. Cardboard Boxes is a song that is lighter on the first listen but changes intensity the more you listen to it. It has a deeper emotional core and is catchy. The concluding tracks Modern World and Me After Midnight expand the album’s overall genre range. These pieces are intimate, and at the same time, they enforce a sense of dissociation with the world. The listening experience is cinematic; a perfect end for an album like Changes. A movie, the album would be a perfect background for the movie Garden State (2004). Garden State’s entire soul is built around emotional return, grief, change, and quiet rediscovery, exactly the themes of Changes.
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