Broken Baby release LP

Broken Baby “It’s My Show!”

KKBOX: https://www.kkbox.com/sg/en/album/augFFL0yT3J1S0F2JAta009H-index.html

West coast post-punkers Broken Baby plunge a dagger of rock n’ roll rebellion into the chest of deranged 2018 with their new self-titled album, and in this critic’s opinion it couldn’t have happened at a better time for pop culture. Broken Baby have all the high powered weapons that it takes to really make a statement in this business – intense vocals, throttling guitars and percussion not dissimilar to a thousand bucking broncos stampeding through the front range. The question now is whether or not the established order of pop music is ready for them, because from what I can tell virtually everyone in the audience is in agreement that rock n’ roll needs to be saved by a band bold enough to celebrate its physicality.

For over a decade now, I’ve been writing about other people telling me that rock was dead, lifeless to the critical ear and that I should stop holding out for another Led Zeppelin or Slayer to penetrate the FM airwaves with a visceral sound steeped in high volume and suffocating distortion. From now on I’m going to send those people in the direction of Broken Baby’s new album, because not only does it prove that I’ve been right to believe in rock n’ roll this whole time, it shows that the genre is growing in ways that others are too fearful to. There’s a modern bend to tracks like “It’s My Show!” that keep them from feeling like throwbacks to 80’s hardcore, but don’t get it twisted; this is old school punk rock through and through.

From the moment “Year of the Fat Man” gets us going, you know were onto something really good here, or rather Broken Baby is. There’s a big to-do over music being too formulaic, but I would argue that pop has gotten so shapeless in the last ten years that a little bit of structure might actually be able to save it from its own self-indulgent tendencies. It certainly works in the rock format, as through ten tracks Broken Baby doesn’t skip a beat. They just stay tightly gripped to their harmonies, nimbly making every sharp turn like they’re on rails. The chemistry is spot on and the production lives up to the spirit of the band.

Get out and get this record if you love punk, rock n’ roll, or just big, infectious grooves that won’t let you down once they really get fired up. Broken Baby are fairly unknown outside of the west coast scene that they have come to supremely rule, but this latest outing could potentially make them a household name for punks all over the country and possibly even abroad. There’s a couple of areas where the band still has room for growth, but to be fair they’ve still got less room for improvement than any of their more successful contemporaries who have a plethora of resources not available to this crew. I’ll be keeping a close eye on what they come up with next, and I would advise you to do the same.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/2JrpvVWz2XDFKyLWkg3Szd

Mindy McCall