Popnarcotic

Here’s an album that’s been all over and out of my list pretty constantly. I’ve thought at times “this is one of the best 5 records of the year”, while at others I’ve thought “dude, no.” Like so much music, you can wear yourself out playing “spot the influence” with the Broadfield Marchers: singer/guitarist finds that vocal sweet spot between Daltrey and Pollard, the songs clock in at a Dayton-esque average of 2 minutes and feature loopy titles like “Dr. Invincible & The Champions Of Love” or “Where Baxter Meets Willow”. When Magnet described a previous Marchers effort as “sounding like Alex Chilton fronting Guided By Voices” they weren’t far off.

Which, it goes without saying, sets off my “not another band that sounds as if it was trying to pre-fulfill the wishes of some hipster focus group” alarms. Those alarms are nearly shut down by bouncy Bee Thousand tributes like “The Revenge Of Jimbo Bell”…and then go into full retreat when a song as drop-dead gorgeous as “Falling Asleep To Disappear” (which song, in a little over two and a half minutes, manages to achieve pretty much everything The Clientele have been trying to achieve with lesser results for nearly a decade.) (No, no…I love the Clientele….but “Falling Asleep” sounds like them, but just better.)

There’s enough same-ishness here at times to induce listener fatigue, but the brevity of the 2-minute songs helps that quite a bit, and then anthems like “Everyone From Everywhere” or “Incredible Jumpsuit Shaking” step in to yank you fully back into the Broadfield Marchers’ weird little psych-pop world.

“Falling Asleep To Disappear”
“Everyone From Everywhere”
“Incredible Jumpsuit Shaking”