The Broken Family Band - Music

Please And Thank You - 20th April 2009

1. Please Yourself
2. Salivating
3. St Albans
4. You Did A Bad Thing
5. Cinema vs. House
6. Borrowed Time
7. Mimi
8. Don't Bury Us
9. Stay Friendly
10. Son Of The Man
11. The Girls In This Town
12. Old Wounds

Easily their best

Bulldozer rock

Graceful and witty

An uncomplicated joy

An accomplished, compelling piece of work, delivered with warmth, enthusiasm and a wry sense of humour. A future classic.

Musically this album never gets beyond the pub

Only a fool won't recognise what always made them great: sardonic and witty songs delivered with real bite

A dickless Radiohead

The Broken Family Band would be far from suited to the serious and self-celebratory air that comes with having a hit record.

The majority of artists, TV shows, films and the like pass through my jaded brain without registering.

Here's a band who, unlike Snow Patrol, will not be compromise [sic] their music for a fast buck.

You could put this CD on once and forget about it, as much of it is quite forgettable.

Despite the politeness of its title, it's Adams' snarliest record yet: all garage rock riffs wrapped around lyrics full of warmth, humour and time spent in the Real World.

A worthy successor to the sharp, sinewy early work of Elvis Costello and Squeeze

Full of the crunchy, seize-the-day rock that made Love Your Man, Love Your Woman such a joy

Required listening for anyone with a penchant for observational lyrics sung in an impossibly world-weary voice… oddly charming nonetheless

An empty brown paper bag of an album

Salivating - 6th April 2009

1. Salivating (radio edit)
2. Love Your Man, Love Your Woman (Soft Eyes Version)

Leaps - 29th October 2007

1. Leaps
2. Hold On To Your Love

...could only be more lovely if it was the theme from The Littlest Hobo.

A wonderfully frisky feel good cruise controlling whipper snapper that's sumptuously braided seductively with lightly toned 50's styled bubble gum pop accents that sound as though they've been bronzed via an extended west coast vacation retreat and latterly decamped to the studio becalmed and chilled.

A special kind of genius.

Hello Love - 2nd July 2007

1. Leaps
2. Love Your Man, Love Your Woman
3. So Many Lovers
4. Julian
5. Don't Change Your Mind
6. Dancing On The 4th Floor
7. You Get Me
8. Hey Captain
9. Give And Take
10. Little Justice
11. Seven Sisters

Americana Album Of The Month. Uncut

Album Of The Week. The Times

God knows where they go from here, but we can't wait to find out.

A bold and lovely album...

In place of adolescent snottiness there’s a wary vulnerability, and nihilism has given way to warmth.

In an era when you need to adapt to survive The Broken Family Band are keeping up with the game.

Where do bands like this go to die?

Genius.

Love Your Man, Love Your Woman - 11th June 2007

1. Love Your Man, Love Your Woman
2. Love Your Man, Love Your Woman (Trendy Remix)

In a week where most singles seem to be arrogant with adequacy, this song is a white hot motherfucker.

Ultimately it's a beefy cub scout camp fire song gone wrong, which then eventually turns into a kind of noisy marching band extravaganza.

They've been about a while but this is definitely the best single BFB have ever put out.

Balls may have been the title of their last album, but here's where The Broken Family Band finally display them.

Alone In The Makeout Room - 26th February 2007

1. Alone In The Makeout Room
2. It's All Over

You're Like A Woman - 16th October 2006

1. You're Like A Woman
2. Gavin's Dead
3. Poor Little Thing

Balls - 20th February 2006

1. You're Like A Woman
2. It's All Over
3. I See How You Are
4. The Booze And The Drugs
5. I'm Thirsty
6. Come On Home
7. Alone In The Make-Out Room
8. For Milton Mapes
9. All I Want From You Is Some Effort
10. Michelle
11. Trouble
12. Diamonds In The Mine

This country-fied Cambridge quartet have been a near-secret, but they meet their rising acclaim head-on with this album.

Balls signals a shift of momentum, as if The Broken Family Band have learnt to articulate a hitherto unpoken sense of ambition.

What's for sure is that this album has equal doses of power, grace... and balls.

Plangent, melancholy balladry worthy of prime Johnny Marr.

Balls is their most reflective to date, losing none of the infectious melody and amusing narrative that make Broken Family Band so endearing.

Adams's lyrics, though, remain riddled with disappointment, and maybe there are also alcohol-related anger issues to work through.

Happy Days Are Here Again - 12th September 2005

1. Happy Days Are Here Again
2. For Milton Mapes

Welcome Home Loser - 14th February 2005

1. Happy Days Are Here Again
2. Living In Sin
3. O Princess
4. Where The Hell Is My Baby?
5. Yer Little Bedroom
6. John Belushi
7. Cocktail Lounge
8. Honest Man's Blues
9. We Already Said Goodbye
10. A Place You Deserve
11. Roman Johnson One
12. The Last Song
13. Wherever You Go
14. Coping With Fear

Included in 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die 2007 The Guardian

The Broken Family Band have created their first classic album. A national treasure.

After one full length and two mini albums 'Welcome Home, Loser' captures nearly every magical aspect of this most unlikely band.

From hangovers to messy relationships, this will be the soundtrack to any emotional minefield you should want to stumble through this year.

Welcome Home Loser is a hand-carved notch on the bedpost of alt-country and offers compelling proof that The Broken Family Band may indeed be the greatest band you've never heard of.

TBFB's dark new record is a bloody fantastic masterpiece.

Poor Little Thing - April 2004

1. Poor Little Thing (Belgian Original Version)
2. I Send My Love To You

Jesus Songs - 15th March 2004

1. Walking Back To Jesus Part One
2. Mother O'Jesus
3. The King Of Carrot Flowers Parts Two & Three
4. Walking Back To Jesus Part Two
5. Poor Little Thing
6. Kissing In The Rain
7. Walking Back To Jesus Part Three

Warm, witty and engaging, without ever outstaying its welcome.

In essence then, beautiful songs, beautifully played, whatever your beliefs.

Not so much about the passion of the Christ as the ironic debauchery of his flock - wry alt.country filtered through a dry British wit.

Jesus Songs proves their mettle as transatlantic style-hoppers, as well as fine songsmiths.

The Broken Family Band & Magoo Christmas single - Christmas 2003

1. The Broken Family Band - "The Broken Family Christmas"
2. Magoo - "Peace, Love And Blood"

At The Back Of The Chapel - September 2003

1. At The Back Of The Chapel
2. You Broke My Fucking Heart
3. Canada (CD only)

Cold Water Songs - 2nd June 2003

1. (I Don't Have The Time To) Mess Around
2. Twelve Eyes Of Evil
3. Devil In The Details
4. Song Against Robots
5. Knut
6. Gone Dark
7. Don't Leave That Woman Unattended
8. The Mardi Gras Rescue Mission
9. At The Back Of The Chapel
10. Nights In The Tractorbeam
11. You Were A Nightmare
12. Hitting Women

A triumph of urban wit over rustic convention.

Not exactly Shania Twain.

Cold Water Songs would be enough to break any family.

Like Pavement covering Nashville standards, polished off with the caustic wit of Lou Reed and varnished with the spunky smear of Gram Parsons' love pump, this band create truly remarkable pop music.

Picking highlights from such an excellent record is a task Solomon would baulk at.

It's a twisted little album with a punk rock engine underneath its American styled exterior but fuelled on humour and verve.

Mitcham's Corner/This Is A Drinking Establishment - June 2003

1. Mitcham's Corner
2. This Is A Drinking Establishment
3. A Lesson (Knife In The Water)

The Perfect Gentleman - 24th March 2003

1. The Perfect Gentleman
2. Queen Of The Sea (Fair Isle mix)
3. Song About A Horse

The King Will Build A Disco - 25th November 2002

1. Queen Of The Sea
2. Behind The Church
3. Twisted
4. When We're Dry
5. Off The Radar
6. The Moon And The Stars
7. The Perfect Gentleman

Wonderful, fractured, off-kilter alt. country compositions that sound like Will Oldham might if he'd been born in Brixton.

The Broken Family Band obviously have talent, but their style of music just makes me want to smack my head against a wall.

What sticks in your mind are Adams's lyrics: from the bitter "would you love me more if I was prettier?" (in the suitably titled Twisted) to When We're Dry's worrying "what do we do when the booze runs out?" Actually, that might be the perfect moment to listen to The King Will Build a Disco.

...even the spunk joke in 'The Perfect Gentleman' adds to the charm.

...ripples with the sound of genuine, rain-sodden English defeat. Witty and sumptuously melodic.