Tuesday Is For Tunes: The Morning Benders

Big Echo, the new album from The Morning Benders released today, and accordingly they are today's Tuesday Is For Tunes band. For the past week Big Echo has been available to stream in its entirety on The Morning Bender's website, and consequently monopolized much of my recent listening time. This album is golden. It's burgeoning with ripe pop gems that glisten and beckon your ears to dine upon succulent sounds with relish. The Morning Benders have served up a whole lot of sweetness. So when you give it a listen, let your mind take a mouthful, savor it as the juices dribble down, and then take another big bite.

Previous efforts from The Morning Benders have also made my heart melt; however, they’ve occasionally waxed overly minimalist for my liking with lyrics that sounded just a little too artless to stand the test of repeated plays. Thankfully, this album is different. The Morning Benders have finally matured into a sound that truly showcases their talent and spirit. I’m confident that Big Echo will remain in my regular rotation for years to come.

The gloriousness of this album is that it evokes feelings of tender, simple, heartfelt entreaties, while maintaining a high level of intelligently dense, complicated composition and production. With all this passion and sound it would be easy to sound hectic or overdone, yet The Morning Benders ring true to their Bay Area roots throughout. There is a wonderfully blurry, nonchalant tone that permeates Big Echo keeping it easy like Sunday morning.

There are many songs I’m am already in love with from this album, including Mason Jar and Hand Me Downs, but the highlight of the album is undeniably Excuses. Featured in an stupendous video from Yours Truly that was subsequently posted on Pitchfork with their full good graces, Excuses is already one of the best tracks of 2010. The song was recorded with a bevy of additional musicians and friends of the band using some production techniques inspired by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound method. You can see the rousing process in action along with some commentary on the song from frontman, Christopher Chu in the Yours Truly video. It’s definitely worth a watch. I must confess I’ve seen it at least twenty times, and that’s no exaggeration.

Basically, I beseech you to give The Morning Benders a try. I have gladly and completely given my heart to their music, and sincerely want you to share in my aural satisfaction. I am seeing them live tomorrow night, and anxiously awaiting the moment when I will purchase Big Echo. My desire to buy direct is really the only reason this album isn’t in my physical possession yet. At the very least watch the video for Excuses from Yours Truly included below.
The Morning Benders' website