{"id":852,"date":"2014-02-06T10:13:40","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T15:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=852"},"modified":"2014-02-13T12:04:40","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T17:04:40","slug":"cymbals-the-age-of-fracture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/cymbals-the-age-of-fracture\/","title":{"rendered":"Cymbals <br>The Age of Fracture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cymbals-the_age_of_fracture.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-853\" alt=\"Cymbals, The Age of Fracture\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cymbals-the_age_of_fracture.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cymbals-the_age_of_fracture.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cymbals-the_age_of_fracture-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>When a band announces that a book inspired its record, it\u2019s cause for a slight pause. When a Princeton professor writes that book, the pause is a little longer. And when the book\u2019s subject is no less than how long standing social systems began to break down, as well as how public and private identity and relationships began to shift in the late 20th century, well, then it may be cause for the full side eye. Add to that the fact that it\u2019s the band\u2019s second album, and you may throw up your hands before one note hits the speakers. Such is the setting for Cymbals\u2019 sophomore album, The <i>Age of Fracture<\/i> (Tough Love Records), inspired by Daniel Rodgers\u2019 book of the same name.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s natural and expected to think that a band would want to stretch their wings out, but the Cymbals\u2019 debut, <i>Unlearn<\/i>, didn\u2019t suggest they\u2019d go this route. That record leaned on frantic energy a la Talking Heads and futzed around with some cheap electronics. It seemed the band would be more likely to opt for a get-down than a chin-stroking sit-down. Thankfully, on <i>The Age of Fracture<\/i>, things aren\u2019t that drastic, but there are changes afoot. The spastic energy has been tamed into a sleeker, polished form, and the guitars have taken a back seat to gleaning, gurgling synths and 808 accents. While not a full 180, that\u2019s certainly a massive leap.<\/p>\n<p>Refreshingly, the new maturity and the seeming heady inspiration don\u2019t overload or drag down the album. Any sort of thematic references are muted or at least not necessary to enjoy the record. And where <i>Unlearn<\/i> seemed, at points, that it could go off the rails at any moment, <i>The Age of Fracture<\/i> is relentlessly composed. Similarly, the result is much more layered and extended songs as contrasted with the more sparse production of the debut. Mileage may vary as some songs teeter on the edge of overstaying their welcome, with the longest song, \u201cLike an Animal,\u201d nearly nine minutes and a handful of others also push the running time. While not necessarily gratuitous, a touch of editing wouldn\u2019t hurt and a few slightly different choices would have made for a tighter album. But ultimately those complaints are minor and Cymbals have made a solid follow-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When a band announces that a book inspired its record, it\u2019s cause for a slight pause. When a Princeton professor writes that book, the pause is a little longer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,356,357],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-cymbals","tag-tough-love-records"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cymbals The Age of Fracture - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/cymbals-the-age-of-fracture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cymbals The Age of Fracture - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a band announces that a book inspired its record, it\u2019s cause for a slight pause. When a Princeton professor writes that book, the pause is a little longer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/cymbals-the-age-of-fracture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAgitReader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-06T15:13:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-02-13T17:04:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/cymbals-the_age_of_fracture.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dorian S. Ham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dorian S. Ham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/cymbals-the-age-of-fracture\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/cymbals-the-age-of-fracture\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dorian S. 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