Sin Ropas - Holy Broken

Sin Ropas
Holy Broken
(Shrug Records)
Rating: 3 of 5


Holy Broken? Holy reminder! From the get-go, I’m instantly hearing the resemblances to that Number Seven Uptown record from Swearing at Motorists. From the use of distorted guitars and slag tempos to the Hayden-tinged sound of the vocals (Swearing at Motorists covered Hayden’s “Bullet” on the aforementioned LP); the album from this duo, known as Sin Ropas, is a spitting image of the Midwestern lo-fi ramble rock I knew so well.

Well, it pays that Tim Hurley and his wife Danni Iosello (Hurley of Califone and Red Red Meat fame) make the city of Chicago their hub for production. However, Holy Broken was actually recorded in a cabin located in the mountains of North Carolina.

If you’re hankering for a bluesy swank, “Nailed In Air” features the slow sway of a bar band whose lead singer is drugged up on Valium. And, we also get a taste of Joseph Arthur-style cooing two-thirds the way through.

‘What good is stealing light from another star?’ Hurley slurs overtop pedestrian acoustic guitar strums on the dusky “Stolen Stars and Light”. The smooth husk of his singing is so reminiscent of Paul Hayden Desser that this could’ve been plucked from 1998’s The Closer I Get. “The Fever You Fake”, at the head of the record, achieves an energy that is never surpassed from the rest that plays out. But, it sweetly owes to 90s alternative rock, sounding like a product of Lou Barlow and Mark Everett from Eels.

You’ll continue to hear strange clattering and electronic drones throughout Holy Broken, as Hurley used instruments that he tailored himself out of who-knows-what; certainly retaining a bit of uniqueness on the album. Yet still, the bumbling chord changes and nightmarish lyrics are all but exact copies from other lesser-known songbooks. Hurley does steal light after all, but only from the dimmest of the stars in the indie rock universe.

Stolen Stars and Light - Sin Ropas

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