The Broken Family Band is well-recorded as being "alt-country," a genre known for twisting old-time Americana into new formulas that cause listeners to forget they ever uttered the ubiquitous "everything but country" answer to the question "What music do you like?"
For those who have cursed Billy Ray Cyrus and his ilk to the ninth circle this reformulation may be a hard sell, but if there is any band out right now capable of pushing the skeptical over the edge, it is this U.K.-based foursome.
Their new album, the aptly titled Balls, gets rid of all the "cry in your beer" aspects that make mainstream country so un-listenable but keeps the beer and throws in some solid proto-punk to the mix. Balls is a mix-up of guitar rock and blunt yet somehow poetic lyrics addressed to no one in particular. Tracks like "You're like a Woman" and "The Booze and the Drugs" scream out like lost Modest Mouse singles slumming in some Midwest tavern. The slower songs like "Alone In the Make-Out Room" betray the more "down home" elements of the Broken Family sound, but they never drag and lead singer Adams' twangy lyrics remain clever and fresh, never coming across as offensively self-indulgent or clich8ed.
As a mash-up of influences, the Band does a good job of remaining true to itself and keeping a stable voice rather than falling into the trap of imitating a different sound on each track There are also quite a few tounge-in-cheek moments throughout the record, but it never becomes overly ironic. The Broken Family Band breaks new ground here just by being themselves, and thats a quality that more bands could use to possess.
