The Morning Benders

Big Echo

(Rough Trade)

Record Review by Angel M. Baker

Big Echo, the sophomore album for San Francisco’s Morning Benders, is a record that fits its name in all ways, metaphorical and literal. It gives promise rings and bends on its knee and it peaks around corners like shy boys with crushes. It gives you a varsity pin and quietly suggests it wants to get to first base but kisses you on the cheek and goes home to study. At the same time, Big Echo is bold and unapologetic. If it can theoretically be done, Big Echo does it: this record nails the burgeoning retro chamber pop movement with force. 

The Morning Benders are, comparatively, just starting out but they have already shown such growth from the first record, Talking Through Tin Cans, which, arguably, felt like a group of really talented musicians collaborating to sound like someone else, to Big Echo, which sounds like The Morning Benders all on their own.

Part, not all, of the credit goes to Christopher Chu’s distinct vocals. He manages to sound at once innocent and mature (intellectually, sexually) with an impressive scale scaling range and circumspective lyrics like, “When we hand down our hopes, oh who will be the first to realize they’re all alone” on “Hand Me Downs” and provocative lyrics like, “We are so smooth now, Our edges are beaten drift wood whittled down, Old bodies slip when they make love, We'll mine our sparks to shoot us above,” on the opener, “Excuses.”   

“Excuses” is, incidentally, the record’s undeniable highlight. This is where any others seeking a standard for the retro chamber pop movement will come. Put it on. Ease into it. Roll around in the park with it. Let it take you to the dance. Languid DaDaDaDas and a melancholy violin overlay make this '50s inspired pop number just so smooth. Like the beautiful oil painted record cover, you’ll want to change into your swimmers and follow The Morning Benders out past the breaks on the first listen.

Additional highlights include “Pleasure Sighs” and “Sleeping In,” two gorgeous tracks that, though slow, don’t weigh the record down. “Pleasure Sighs” is really where Big Echo gets its name. There’s so much reverb, it feels like we’re listening to whales mating. And this is meant in the most complimentary way possible. In “Sleeping In,” Chu’s vocals are so sedated, it’s difficult to decipher any of the lyrics but it makes sense here to not be bothered by the meanings of the words and to be moved by the sounds of the words, which are peaceful and lilting.

Hyperbole and sycophancy aside, this record is close to but isn’t perfect. “Mason Jar” slows the record down and inspires an intermission where “Cold War” holds onto the other-band-sounding safety out of which the other songs on Big Echo grew.   

That said, Big Echo certainly benefits from The Morning Benders’ maturation and success of their first record. So many people had so much to say about this band and, with Big Echo, they listened. Collaboration with phenom producer Chris Taylor (notables: Grizzly Bear, The Dirty Projectors, and TV on the Radio) probably helped, too.