Grumps Waltzing with the Cadence,

Broken Records are a brilliant seven-piece band from Embra, Scotland’s capital city. After a string of teasing singles, the band finally released their debut album, Until the Earth Begins to Part. Such a title serves as an epitome of the band’s power, it suggests strength and longevity.

When this mini-orchestra is something of a beast, whether erupting in attack such as in If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch it or A Good Reason, or lying ponderously in wait through Until the Earth Begins to Part, they always present an insurmountable prospect. Many of the songs are upbeat and in an age where pop by synthesisers has become popular again, it is refreshing to see a band create energetic songs, through traditional string and brass instruments.

Lyrically, the band could be better, as they dwell on basic ideas, but their musical constructions more than compensate. The two loveliest songs are Ghosts and The Slow Parade. Reminiscences lilt along with the piano, the mood veers just one shade happier than melancholic and presents a uniquely wistful sound, ‘If the choice was mine, you’d always appear in my dreams’ sums up the tone of Ghosts. The Slow Parade may be best illustrated by the Jack Vettriano painting called ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’, it’s just about forgetting the woes of the daily life for small moments of culture and beauty, which is why people visit The Bellyaches.