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Still casting a spell: Broadcast’s 20 best songs – ranked!
As the Birmingham band fronted by the late Trish Keenan put out their final release, we pick the best from their eerie, evocative sound world
The stripped-down, more straightforwardly electronic sound of the Tender Buttons album, in miniature: a ping-ponging 8-bit computer-game synth, drum machine, scratchy guitar and a disarmingly sweet melody that carries some pretty baffling lyrics: “Come on your father was a teddy boy … There’s nothing written on your fingernails.” Its tumbling drums and thickly layered vocal harmonies feel off-centre and creepy, the perfect setting for lyrics that deal with appearance and reality: “Your heart a place that no one sees / You can’t disguise your own unease.” The distorted synth riff sounds as if it’s spinning out of control and the guitar slashes and stabs, but the vocal is cool and aloof, the lyrics simultaneously sensual and sinister: “I’m in orbit, held by magnets, and the force feels so much closer than love.”
Or read this on The Guardian