15 essential Broadcast tracks and the records where you can find them

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tender buttons

Broadcast
‘Tender Buttons’
(Warp, 2005)

Listen / Buy

After HaHa Sound, Broadcast lost both Roj Stevens and Tim Felton, leaving just Cargill and Keenan as the band’s creative core. They decided (mainly out of necessity) to record their next album as a duo, and the resulting record was perhaps the most dramatic re-contextualization of their sound to date. A double A-side single was released ahead of that album, and while the buzzing 8-bit synths and George W. Bush-dissing of ‘America’s Boy’ was a surprising left turn, it was the single’s other song that really stood out.

‘Tender Buttons’ (a reference to Gertrude Stein’s 1914 book of abstract verse, which also became the album’s title) opens with something previously unheard of on a Broadcast song: an acoustic guitar. Layers of overlapping one-note strums interlock as Cargill’s bass carries the melody once again, while a minimal machine pulse keeps time. The effect instantly pushed Broadcast’s points of reference forward by 20 years, recalling DIY post punk-era projects instead of the kaleidoscopic psychedelia of their previous records. It was an ingenious way to keep things from growing stale, but it’s Keenan’s vocal that’s arguably the most shocking thing here, with her stern recitation of cut-up texts derived from automatic writing sessions. The exercise would be a creative breakthrough for Keenan’s lyrical contributions, and would lead to the band’s most polarizing work yet.