New Music: The Broken West – "Perfect Games"

We could be righting every wrong. The first time I heard “Perfect Games,” I thought Ross Flournoy was saying every song — but The Broken West (I still wanna type “The Brokedown”; alas, 2005!) are, luckily, only trying to write really good ones these days, from 2007’s power-pop gem I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On to the new jamz. Perfect, indeed: the band’s smartly slicked up the production a little bit since I Can’t Go On, and while Marc compared the new tune to U2, I hear a little late-period Guided by Voices in Flournoy’s strident lead vocals. Talk about a guy who writes every song.

The Broken West – “Perfect Games”: mp3

(Now Or Heaven is due in September on Merge)

For the record, I Can’t Go On was my #17 album of last year and should’ve been #14. The top 10 has actually held up really well for once — I’ve listened to Radiohead, The Thrills, The Clientele, Jens Lekman and St. Vincent again recently and they all still sound fantastic. Maybe I should just run that list again at the end of the year.

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