100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 56. Bishop Allen: The Broken String

56. Bishop Allen: The Broken String

Bishop Allen went from a band I had never heard, to a band I became obsessed with every quickly. It started one evening when my friend randomly sent me a link to a song. That song was News From Your Bed. It’s catchy sing-along style burrowed itself into my brain and wouldn’t get out. 

About a month later I rented Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and sure enough the band is in that movie as well. However they perform the song Middle Management and it sounds TOTALLY different that News from your Bed. What feels like a day or two later my friend Dennis invited me to go to a Bishop Allen concert later that month. So while only knowing 2 songs I went.

I left with a copy of The Broken String. 

I love/hate records like this. It’s a beautiful crafted album with lovely lyrics, melodies and stories to be told. I love albums like this but what i hate is that these albums never retain the magic of that first listening. 

I remember listening to this CD for the first time while driving alone in the mountains. It was late and night and raining. I was driving to meeting up with my friend Jackie so she could follow me back to the mountain house where we were staying. I remember hearing Rain and Click Click Click Click while driving on those windy roads and thinking ‘this is amazing.’

There’s just something about the way that Justin Rice sings and the instrumentation that Christian Rudder uses on songs like Flight 180 and Like Castanets that just pull you into this weird but beautiful world of sounds.

While News from your Bed remains my favorite song on the album the lovely Butterfly Net holds a close second. The beautiful whispery female vocals and soft uke is enough to make your heart melt.