Categories
RECORD REVIEWS

BROADFIELD MARCHERS: The Inevitable Continuing [Rainbow Quartz]

On paper, at least, this Louisville, Ky., power-pop trio would appear to be an utterly faultless proposition, an aging hipster rock critic’s proverbial wet dream. Broadfield Marchers have all the right moves and touch all the requisite musical reference points: a hefty slice of Radio City-era Big Star meets the Raspberries via Badfinger, with added echoes of The Who Sell Out, a whole lot of sub-Byrds Rickenbacker jangle and just a smidgen of R.E.M. mystique. All this plus a neat line in vocal harmonies and a succinct attitude toward song length (only two of the 19 tracks on sophomore effort The Inevitable Continuing clock in above the three-minute mark), and both this magazine and Mojo have lauded the band. What’s not to love, right? And yet, it’s all so interminably dull. The Inevitable Continuing is certainly pretty, and it possesses a certain psych-pop fragility. But nothing here ever gets under the skin. It’s as if it’s been airbrushed and buffed into near nothingness, calling to mind the last Shins album (another musical reference point), which promised so much and delivered so little. Ultimately, The Inevitable Continuing is a pleasantly inconsequential experience that wafts by and is gone before you know it. [www.rainbowquartz.com]

—Neil Ferguson