Warp Records
2006
Future Crayon
About This Album
Collecting most of Broadcast's EP tracks, B-sides, and rarities from The Noise Made by People and Haha Sound eras, Future Crayon is a welcome reminder of how consistently interesting the band's output is. Indeed, the band's other EP collection, Work and Non-Work, flowed just as well, if not better, than many other groups' full-length albums. Future Crayon isn't quite that cohesive, but it does chart how Broadcast's sound developed during that time, and also includes some tracks that even die-hard fans might have missed the first time around. The collection begins with a string of relatively poppy songs that rival the quality of anything that appeared on either The Noise Made by People or Haha Sound. Extended Play Two's "Illumination" is particularly gorgeous, opening with an insistent bassline and Trish Keenan's coolly lovely voice before achieving lift-off with clouds of backing vocals and art-damaged synths. Meanwhile, "Still Feels Like Tears" from the Pendulum EP takes the title track's stripped-down psych-rock in a lighter, sweeter direction, while Extended Play's "Where Youth and Laughter Go" begins as a clockwork lullaby and then swells into quintessentially Broadcast-like sci-fi lounge-pop.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,5,9,11,12,17 and 18)

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