Anchor & Braille - The Quiet Life

Stephen Christian has one of those voices that's hard to hate. Over the years his voice (as well as Anberlin's sound) as gotten smoother and more polished. I had never picked up Anchor & Braille's last record but the idea of Stephen Christian fronting a pop group makes perfect sense.

The Quiet Life plays much like I would except it to. Anchor & Braille sounds like an indie version of Anberlin. I'm not complaining. It's awesome.

But it's also a bit underwhelming.

The whole record is solid. The Quiet Life is 42 minutes of indie pop perfection. Songs like Knew Then Know Now, Find Me, and In With the New are beautiful. There's not a negative moment on this record. And it's different enough from Anberlin that those people who have never been able to dig Anberlin could find something great about this record. Anchor & Braille probably has more marketability and more room for commercial success than Anberlin.

What's underwhelming about it is, I am an Anberlin fan. And while I think Anchor & Braille is a huge shift from Christian's work in Anberlin, his voice is still the driving factor and it times it could come across as Anberlin light, or a b-sides album to hold fans over until October (When Vital hits stores). While Anchor & Braille isn't supposed to have the epic rock qualities that Anberlin does, I still find myself missing them.

I say all that, but it doesn't diminish how good The Quiet Life is. I say that because I know this record might fall short for some Anberlin fans.

Anchor & Braille have delivered a great pop record full of catchy songs.