Music Review // Eddie Berman "Broken English"

 

When listening to "Broken English" for the first time there is this steady pace about it where I feel like eventually it's just going to kick in and become this huge rock song but it never does.   Sometimes though the reality of art is better than what our minds are trained to perceive as patterns and I do believe I enjoy this song a lot more because of the consistent nature of it, rather than it just feeling like it's building up to something and then exploding at the end.

The sound of Eddie Berman is tricky because it's this mellow rock that could kick in at any moment and seemingly draw easier comparisons, but as it stands there isn't a direct sound which relates with it.   Artists on the radio such as Mumford & Sons, Hozier, Pearl Jam and even Kings of Leon come out but mostly in a way which you hear them in portions of their songs and not for an entire song.   The sound is also unique because it has a upbeat pace to it- it is not a slow moving song- but it does feel like it's moving in slow motion, which just makes it calming.

During this music video there are images- mostly in lines- of color on top of a black background.  I really like this because whenever you tend to go to an art store for supplies you'll buy canvas to paint or a sketchbook and they're always white.  I enjoy the fact that sometimes you can buy that format to create art on and not have it be white.  I also like how this reminds me of the laser rock shows from the 1980's, which I mostly attribute to Pink Floyd and, yes, that can make this song feel trippy.

As this is rock it almost borders on something that Johnny Cash might have made.  It reminds me of that one Mumford & Sons song that everyone knows and how it is in the verse, only "Broken English" doesn't kick into the whole "But it was not your fault but mine".   By the end of this song though you will find yourself singing along with the line: "Don't you want us to be anything at all", which feels like such a great mantra for such a great song.