Louder Than The Music

Anchor & Braille - TENSION

Artist:

Anchor & Braille

Title:

TENSION

Type:

Album

Released:

22 May 2020

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Review

Anchor & Braille, the side project of Anberlin vocalist Stephen Christian, has released their new album Tension.

Tension is the fourth studio release from Stephen Christian as Anchor & Braille. Critically acclaimed and inherently personal, the album is a departure from the music Stephen has come to be known for with his work in Anberlin. The album explores the more pop driven side of Stephen as a songwriter and was born out of a creative time during the recent Anberlin reunion in 2019.

The album as a whole has an atmospheric vibe to it, it creates an overall airy and big sound...
Read More Anchor & Braille, the side project of Anberlin vocalist Stephen Christian, has released their new album Tension.

Tension is the fourth studio release from Stephen Christian as Anchor & Braille. Critically acclaimed and inherently personal, the album is a departure from the music Stephen has come to be known for with his work in Anberlin. The album explores the more pop driven side of Stephen as a songwriter and was born out of a creative time during the recent Anberlin reunion in 2019.

The album as a whole has an atmospheric vibe to it, it creates an overall airy and big sound that makes everything feel 'spacey'. This isn't an album that is full of techno weird sounds, this a a peaceful album, maybe a bit like the stuff Kraftwerk or Sigur Ros would make. I would say, and I might be wrong, but mix 1975, The Foals and a poppier version of Kid A from Radiohead and you might start to understand the magic that has been made here.

The album opens as it means to go on, pop, dreamy but lovely to hear. 'Dangerous' has a similar feel socially to Adam Levine, 'No Ordinary' is a great track as is 'Black Sea'. We then move onto the song 'Eventful Horizons' which again is an atmospheric and airy sounding song, the song hangs around the pop world but not in a bubblegum pop way, in a sort of chilled, pop, indie way. The song itself is about "When NASA had just released the first picture of a black hole In a world that has already been discovered, with very few places left to be explored, sometimes space exploration brings out the pioneer spirit in humanity,” explains Stephen Christian. “In the same way romantic relationships can have that effect on the soul; the idea of something unexplored, fear and anxiety of the unknown, and coming alive in someone else’s universe. ‘Eventful Horizon’ was my attempt to amalgamate the infinite with finite love in music form.”

I have to admit not many people would look at a picture of a black hole and think, I'm going to write a song about this. But Stephen has seen this from a whole different angle, which great songwriters do. As a song I have had it on repeat all morning and I really like it, fuseing together the magnitude of space and then the intimacy of personal relationships.

This is no ordinary album, yet at the same time it is, it's current sounding, you only have to press play on the track 'Slow Motion' to see Anchor & Braille want to be contemporary and accessible to everybody. As a whole album the songs flow together nicely which creates a bigger picture and sound, I didn't know what to expect but all I can say is this album is a great success.

Review by Jono Davies

LTTM Rating 4.5 Out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
No Ordinary
Eventful Horizons
Madness

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Anchor & Braille Release New Song 'Eventful Horizons'

Anchor & Braille, the side project of Anberlin vocalist Stephen Christian, is releasing the second song from their recently announced album Tension. “Eventful Horizons” is available via all digital service providers and a…

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