How They Are is a soothing oasis of an album, floating over the glitzy sturm and drang of pop culture. It is basically the work of a solitary musician, one-time touring Esterklang member Peter Broderick. Struck down by a knee injury, he put the album together whilst convalescing at his piano keyboard, singing when he felt like it and occasionally picking up a nearby guitar. It’s an unrushed affair, buffered by the piano sustain pedal, a hint of tape-hiss and gentle vocal deliveries.
He seems reluctant to sing, with two lovely piano tracks vocal free, the vocals on ‘Human Eyeballs On Toast’ and ‘With a Key’ beginning only after significant instrumental openings, and the spoken word narrative on the guitar-plucked ‘Guilt’s Tune’ beginning at the track’s halfway mark. When Broderick does open his mouth he engages in Will Oldham-style folkalising as his melodies wander around the mournful expansive indie-film ennui of his piano soundscapes.
Tentative vocals, icon-imitation and expansive soundtrack music aside, there is at least one truly great song here, the opening track ‘Sideline’, with its melancholy observational refrain: “There is something we are stuck with, and I have tried to point it out. But no-one likes the guy who points from the sideline.”
All in all, while the wounded Broderick clearly feels like he has been “on the sidelines a while” he does seem perversely content to be there, sounding out those mournful and lovely melodies.