Album titles can often sum up the albums themselves. Case in point: the Morning Benders' 2008 debut, Talking Through Tin Cans, a collection of boilerplate indie rock that borrowed more than a bit from the Shins' jangle pop. Despite a few bright spots, the record branded the San Franciscan outfit with a second-tier reputation. Add that to the fact that the Shins aren't groundbreakers themselves, and Talking Through Tin Cans begins to sound as limited as the rudimentary children's activity suggested in its title.
The title to the Benders' sophomore effort and Rough Trade debut, Big Echo, appropriately evokes their sonic shift in the past two years. The album is a homecoming of sorts, as it finds the Morning Benders correcting their PacNW indie pop identity crisis in favor of a more coastal, kaleidoscopic California haze. It also finds them embracing the cavernous experimental rock sound of Grizzly Bear, whose Chris Taylor shares a co-production credit with Benders singer/guitarist Christopher Chu.
Big Echo kicks off with "Excuses", a sunny, lilting little ditty that carries simultaneous debts to 1950s pop balladry and Sgt. Pepper's-inspired orchestral mania. The song is an easygoing and excellent introduction to the Benders' stylistic changes, and its charming melody serves as an adequate explanation as to how these guys got so many San Franciscan music notables into one room to perform the tune for videographers Yours Truly.
The trio that follow "Excuses" round out Big Echo's more accessible front-end and come closest to the Benders' previous, less complicated sound. Even then, the band finds ways to add touches of weirdness to each track. "Promises" may be just another song about an uncertain relationship, but the song's big-beat thump and tangled voices add something sticky to the bittersweet presentation. The simple shuffle of "Wet Cement" is augmented by scale-sliding background vocals, while the economical "Cold War (Nice Clean Fight)" features glockenspiel to accentuate its ramshackle charm.
Big Echo's second half is slightly slower and swampier than its first; it's also where the band's newfound Grizzly Bear influence comes through clearest, from the jagged guitars that crack open "Hand Me Downs" to the breathy, multi-part swooning of "Pleasure Sighs" and "Stitches". Taylor's studio presence is all over Big Echo, from the warped music-hall strings of "Excuses" to the hymn-like, soft-focus vocals on album closer "Sleeping In". This cavernous production gives Big Echo another titular double-meaning, lending gravitas and providing guitarists Christopher and Jonathan Chu room to stretch amidst the wooly arrangements.
Giving too much credit to Taylor's influence and direction, however, undermines the Morning Benders' stylistic transition, one any band would envy and many listeners will love. Many bands spend entire careers trying (and failing) to even nail down the one thing they're good at. The Morning Benders have already found a handful. Here's hoping they continue down the path illustrated on Big Echo's gorgeous oil-painted album cover: into the unsure seas, and away from the relative safety of stable terrain.
