"It is said that no two robins ever sing exactly the same," declares the homey, deep-voiced narrator of "CheerupCheerily," conjuring 3-D nature images from a '50s-era ViewMaster. "Robins are like small boys when their voices are changing. Let's listen to a robin sing!" Offsetting such found-sound oddities is Broder's unique kitchen-sink approach to combining electronic loops and acoustic instruments (mostly guitar and piano in this batch) into fleetingly resonant, racket-happy shelters for shivering wildlife.
Broder's first-take feel to this disc works well when it does but breaks down just as often. He's better when he's mumbling baby gibberish like "Aw crud, what a dud/A fuddy duddy/That's funny, that mummy/I hate you wall... I'm sorry wall --I didn't mean that at all" ("I Call This Song Old Tyme Dudes"). Thankfully, the Minneapolis-based noisemucker still boasts more homestretch-chops than your average crate-jockey. He's on Ninja Tune, after all: trip-hop's last white hope.
He's more apt to mix an awkward pause with the punch line from "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (a laugh-out-loud moment on "Dudes," by the way) than adhere to any trance-happy dancefloor schematic. Otherwise, it's as quirky and unique as the kind of child-like art that adorns most refrigerators.
