The Broken Family Band
Cold Water Songs

Oddball country-pop from Cambridge, complete with cult following, offer up their first

LONG-player. Recorded at Magoo's infamous Sick Room studios, it contains 12 tracks about

wimmin, beer, and Beelzebub. In short, with a name like Broken Family Band, it does

exactly as it says on the tin.

The mini-album was great and this is even better. The lyrics can be sharp and amusing one

minute (most notably _"there's a dog sleeping in my bed/ If I tickle his balls he gives me

sweet head"_), to genuinely touching the next. There's also a collaboration with the

Be Good Tanyas' Samantha Parton on 'Devil in the Details', which is a very

sweet tune. Mmm, lovely. Also lovely is the duet with Mary Epworth on _'Nights In The

Tractorbeam'_.

'Cold Water Songs' has everything across the musical spectrum as far as adult

emotions go - so not in a "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" or _"no mum I

won't do my homework tonight"_ kind of way - while musically it crosses from the opening

stomper of long-time live-favourite '(I Don't Have Time To) Mess Around'_, to beautiful

'ditties' like 'Gone Dark', and its secret weapon in the form of straight-ahead

rocker, 'At the Back of the Chapel'; the latter being the song most likely to rope in

new fans. Hell, they can't stay Britain's Best Kept Secret for much longer.

The Broken Family Band manage to pull off the singing-in-American-accent thing, so blatantly

getting away with it, by their charm, humour, and unpretentiousness, giving

that American accent a distinctly English voice. A complete gem of an album. And you thought

you hated country music? Think again. I wish I was in the Broken Family Band.

(having said all that, singer Steven Adams asked me to say it sounds like Slayer)