Broken Records – Let Me Come Home

With its own sense of self-importance, Broken Records debut album reached for the heavens but ended up leaving some listeners firmly grounded. At times second album Let Me Come Home seems similarly alienating. Opening number A Leaving Song hits a song-ending crescendo within a minute, before labouring back in on itself, with each subsequent ‘soaring’ chorus bringing diminishing returns.

A Darkness Rises Up is another cut that seems too fussy with presenting the band as a burgeoning, ideas-strewn septet. However, repeated listens do reap rewards. Modern Worksong works as a more ragged, unfurling number that deploys tempo and off-kilter timings rather than pure grandiosity to hit the right buttons. Elsewhere, the more restrained tracks, such as the ghostly-beautiful waltz Dia dos Namorados!, work to best effect. It’s perhaps less consistent than its predecessor, but given how divisive that album was, Let Me Come Home should unite rather than split opinion. [Darren Carle]