As I sit here and try to review A Broke Machine, I find myself speechless, yet needing to write a book about the "ABM" experience.  And it is an Experience, pure bliss, pure beauty, and great awe, it doesn’t get any better than this.
 
I have never been so profoundly touched by a CD before, emotionally and physically.  You quickly become lost in the beauty upon first listen.  By the second listen, you are completely addicted to this brilliant collection of songs.
 
I have loved Terami’s previous CD’s.  But with A Broke Machine, Terami is at her best vocally, lyrically, and musically.  With this release, I have come to the realization that Terami stands alone in a separate category of singer/songwriter: Genius.

A Broke Machine is a stunning work of art:
perfection from start to finish.
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Terami Hirsch's fourth studio album, A Broke Machine(ABM), is an incredible statement of unfaltering dedication to her music. Released 3 years after her previous offering, Entropy 29, ABM explores new avenues and genres while still remaining very decisively "Terami". The opening song "Back to the Start" begins with a melody and drums that set up the feel of the album, but it's the very first line that Terami sings that hints at a promise of what lies in wait in the album vocally. Yes, any person who has heard her previously, fan or otherwise, will immediately recognize a change in her voice. One can hear a new confidence in her range, a better control of the endearing edge we remember from songs like Little Light and Stained. Terami credits this to professional voice lessons, as a listener and fan I credit it to her dedication to create great music. Lyrically, the song defines the album with "If there is a new world, I want to set sail", a veritable mission statement. What follows on the rest of the album is a full delivery on every promise set forth in this opening song.

ABM features some of the most energetic and aggressive songs Terami has ever written in the form of "Help Me", "What I Didn't See", "Battle for Infinite Time" and "Wasteland". These songs drip with an energy and aura that immediately sets them apart from her previous work, and at the same time from other artists to whom she is often compared. Her voice tops off the powerful melodies and mesmerizing percussions beautifully. The album also holds songs like "Fable Moon", "Diagram of Love", the title song and "A Hundred Flowers" which move to a slower beat, while still maintaining the quirkiness of Terami's arrangements of keyboards and drums. "Fable Moon" in particular becomes a highlight of the album by virtue of the mellifluous melody, jazz like bass and soaring vocals. This song is possibly the farthest from anything Terami has done so far, and yet it fits in perfectly with this new vision that is the album. Immediately following is "Chains of Andromeda", closer to the more eccentric side of Terami. It's clear to see that ABM is a genre-bending package of songs from Terami that serve to remove any sense of comparison and similarities to other piano-playing songstresses, giving us something that carves out a piece of musical heaven that is all her own.

The songs I haven't mentioned so far ("The Collector", "Better Times" and "I Am Going to Sleep") are no less than the others, ABM is really one of those rare albums I can listen to from beginning to end without thinking any less of any song in between. In the end, that is what ABM is, an unwavering stream of spellbinding brilliance and I really can't write enough about the immense love I feel for it. This is easily Terami Hirsch's best album yet and I can recommend it to anyone with good taste in music, not just fans of female singer/songwriters or piano-playing women.
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Unimaginable to me that Terami could transcend the brilliance of Entropy 29... but A Broke Machine is Terami's most beautiful work yet.  

This CD takes you to places unexplored and emotions beyond reach~enjoy the journey...
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A Broke Machine is an amazing arrangement of piano and vocal, working and flowing smoothly along complementing one another, seemingly effortlessly. (I have read in her blogs how hard Terami worked on making this CD - hopefully, she will understand that my use of the descriptive 'effortless' is used in the sort of way...like saying Clapton makes playing the guitar look easy).  Her very intricately beautiful arrangement of songs, display Terami Hirsch's talent and sense of independent creative style.  What a truely creative treat (my favorite is still A Hundred Flowers).  Hope you enjoy A Broke Machine as much as I have. Still hoping to catch one of Terami's live performances on her tour around the US.
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