Given the critical acclaim attributed to The Magic Numbers’ self-titled 2005 debut album, their sophomore outing certainly has a lot to live up to! However, this brother/sister quartet seems to have taken the “difficult second-album cliché” in good stride and, as a result, Those The Brokes offers 60 minutes of intelligent pop music still oozing the same breezy slant that earned them a vast international following and their debut album a Mercury Prize nomination. There is a difference between the two albums, however, and it is largely to be found in the more elaborate song structures.

Where the Stodarts and the Gannons previously revelled in relatively straightforward harmonic excursions, they have clearly opted to delve deeper into their music for this album, threading their knack for a good melody and applying it to novel inspirations that give the resulting songs firmer character and, in some cases, longer lasting impact! Of these, the hit single Take A Chance is impeccably infectious, its melody lingering in the head long after the Fab four-esque Carl’s Song has kicked in. One particular element that has been retained from the debut is The Magic Numbers’ distinguishing vocal style. It is truly a divine pleasure when they are all in harmony, their voices doubling as another instrument on top of the delicate, acoustically charged songs. Some will argue that Those The Brokes doesn’t sink in after the first listen like the band’s debut did, but that’s only because it wasn’t meant to! It’s the stronger songwriting that shines here, but rest assured that after only a few listens, the melodies will start to sink in just the same.

CD COURTESY OF Exotique