Thee More Shallows Book of Bad Breaks by: Adam Davy Tue:27-Mar-07 Label: Anticon. Year: 2007 WB rating 54 out of 100

To be honest with you, when I first listened to Book of Bad Breaks, I just didn’t ‘get’ it. Based on what little I had heard about Thee More Shallows, I was full of anticipation and eager to indulge in what the Anticon website describes as “Huge sound scapes… animated on a bounding skeleton of double-time drumming and razor thin drones”. After spinning it a couple times, my initial impressions were a curious mixture of intrigue, disappointment and confusion. Like that time I got a call from Mumbai about timeshares in a Gold Coast holiday apartment, there was an intrinsic level of appeal that I couldn’t deny, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

All I could hope for was that repeated listening would provide some measure of clarity. On the opening track, vocalist and songwriter Dee Kessler muses: “I just think we could probably errrr… keep trying,” and I was inclined to agree with him. After all, there were so many songs on Book of Bad Breaks that were interesting. But try as I might, I could not overcome the fact that I wasn’t enjoying the album.

After a while I began to dread having to write this review, as I simply could not identify what the problem was, let alone articulate it for you out there in the Bollinger-verse. The frustration was palpable, and on more than one occasion I was forced to actually get up from the computer and collect my thoughts, for fear that my precious typing fists might end up inside my precious pc monitor.

On more than one occasion I even wished that the album was irrefutably garbage, so that my task was made more straightforward. This was not the case however, and at this point I feel that I should emphasise that the quality of vocalist and songwriter Dee Kessler’s compositions is appreciable. Bowie is an obvious inspiration, and the fuzzy guitars blend together with cheap synthesizers to shape infectious hooks that herald the ongoing relevance of lo-fi post-pop. It has been suggested that one characteristic of Thee More Shallows’ sound is their vertiginous shift from airy strings to crude distortion, and this is certainly true of standout songs ‘Eagle Rock’, ‘The Dutch Fist’, ‘Night at the Knight School’ and the tambourine-driven ‘Proud Turkey’. These complex arrangements demand attention and occasionally overwhelm with their intensity. It was as I sat pondering this complexity that I finally figured out what had been disturbing me this whole time.  

The problem, as I see it, is that the abundant creative energy of Thee More Shallows seems to simultaneously characterise and destabilise Book of Bad Breaks. You see, many of the tracks on this album are great in and of themselves. However, I really don’t think that together they make a very good album. From slacker-rock, to synth-pop, to abstract electronica; there just doesn’t seem to be enough stylistic consistency here to unify this eclectic collection of tracks. The internal integrity of Book of Bad Breaks suffers, and as a result, the mood of the album gets lost in the confusion.

And so there you have it. This album frustrates the shit out of me, and now we know why. It’s an ugly compilation of attractive music, which does not form an album per se, but rather, an energetic, and often enigmatic, collection of songs. However, try as I might, I just cannot hate what Thee More Shallows have made on Book of Bad Breaks. Although tinged with disappointment at what at times feels like it could have been an effort worthy of so much more, I nevertheless feel compelled to give it some measure of my approval.

The love and attention to detail is evident on this record, and there is ample evidence of obviously talented musical craftsmanship. But ultimately, the album is a memorable experience for the wrong reasons, and that is undoubtedly the most telling indictment I can make against Thee More Shallows. This is an album that seems to revel in its inconsistency and lack of internal coherency, but if you can accept this and persevere, you may just find Book of Bad Breaks to be a satisfying experience.