Bishop Allen - Grrr...

New York-by-way-of-Boston indie-popsters Bishop Allen have returned, with their follow-up to 2007′s The Broken String. This is the band’s first album of all-new material since their 2003 debut, Charm School, as The Broken String was largely re-recorded versions of songs from their year-long EP project.

The first thing a listener will notice is that, overall, this album is lighter and sunnier than The Broken String. While the previous album had a number of songs that painted dark, ominous imagery (perhaps most notable, “Flight 180″), the mood here is much less oppressive. The band has said that this album is something of a return to their Charm School days, though I see it as more of a logical progression from The Broken String. The willingness to experiment with instrumentation found on that album is still there and going strong.

The band doesn’t break a whole lot of new ground, musically, on this record, but at this point, principal songwriters Justin Rice and Christian Rudder have their sound, along with their ear for great hooks, down to a science. The songs here never sound forced, or like filler to pad an EP out to an LP; this is simply Bishop Allen doing what it does best. Once again, Rice handles the lion’s share of vocals, though Darbie, who sang “Butterfly Nets” off The Broken String, here tackles “True or False,” and sounds more confident this time around, though that could just be the more upbeat, bouncy material she’s given here.

The only complaint here is that while the songs are all strong, nothing is really “stand out” on the first few listens. Nothing here has the inescapable charm of “Click, Click, Click, Click,” “Corazon,” or “The News From Your Bed,” though I’d say “Oklahoma” comes closest. For the uninitiated, this could be a grower; it’s certainly not a bad album by any stretch, but it’s not quite as essential as their first two albums. Still, there’s a lot to like here, and this is well worth checking out.

Bishop Allen - The Broken String

I’m coming back after an extended absence with this, an album you likely have heard about, from a delightful Brooklyn-based (formerly Boston-based, let the record show) quartet/quintet. (?) Nowadays, I guess the band’s gotten a lot of exposure, first through the indie flicks by director/writer/actor Andrew Bujalski (band head-honchos Justin Rice and Christian Rudder’s former roommate), and in the movie Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.

I would like to take this moment to establish my cred, and mention that when I first got into this band, I had to mailorder their CD from the guys, as no one was stocking Charm School, their self-produced and self-released debut album. Then, of course, amid issues working on their follow-up to that album (the aborted Clementine), they began “The EP Project,” in which they recorded an EP a month for each month in 2006.

If you followed the songs on those EPs (and you should have, particularly the August EP, which features a show they played at the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, MA) then the songs on this record will feel familiar to you. Primarily this is because 9 of the album’s 12 songs come from those EPs, re-recorded here.

The EPs were solid, so this isn’t bad, and by and large the rerecordings don’t hurt the songs. And it makes for great publicity for the band, since fans can debate ad nauseum on blogs and message boards whether- for example- the version of “The Monitor” on The Broken String was better than the version from the March EP (it isn’t), or which EP songs should have been included on the album instead of others. If I were a more cynical man, I would say this is exactly what the band had in mind, for it certainly does make for great public debate.

Of course, such arguments are largely futile; this is the album we have, and it’s excellent. Rice and Rudder had proven themselves extremely capable songwriters with a great ear for catchy pop tunes on Charm School, and the EP project has really done nothing but focus and hone their skills, as well as given them the room to broaden their repetoire of instruments; see “Like Castanets,” featuring a lovely Spanish-style guitar, or the ukelele on the quiet, pretty “Butterfly Nets.” And unlike Charm School, where by-and-large things were bright and sunny and happy-sounding, musically, the music here isn’t afraid to set more ominous tones and moods; see the dark, building “Flight 180.”

Lyrically, the band finds itself all over the place, but I mean that in the best way possible. From the the salvation of a forgotten, discarded piano in “Corazon,” to the myriad types of flowers in “Shrinking Violet” making for some pretty clever wordplay, these guys have a way with the words. A personal favorite has to be “Click, Click, Click, Click.” I just think the imagery is excellent, as is the music.

The only clunker I can really point out on the album is “Middle Management,” which is the song you would know if you only know the band from Nick & Norah. It’s alright (alright!), but it disrupts the album with its distorted rock attack. Again, not a bad song, but it’s pretty jarring. Probably a song better left to an EP.