Rixton

The group’s 2014 debut EP brought Me and My Broken Heart into a wider public setting after early online performances and covers. Jake Roche’s lead singing gave the songs an immediate centre, while the other members’ instrumental and vocal contributions established a genuinely shared performance.

Let the Road arrived in 2015, made with producer Benny Blanco. The band’s account of the sessions stresses a preference for live drums and a clear place for melody and harmony. That choice is useful context for a debut that can sound polished without losing the sense of several musicians making the phrases work together.

Let the Road itself opens the record as an a cappella piece, making the vocal relationship audible without a full instrumental arrangement. Make Out, Hotel Ceiling and Wait on Me then supply substantially different settings, from a more playful pop entrance to a ballad with a broader emotional build. The variety gives Me and My Broken Heart a home beyond the one familiar refrain. Later work under a different group name belongs to the musicians’ subsequent history, while Rixton identifies this particular recording chapter. The debut is most interesting where its apparent ease reveals a small piece of craft: a backing line answers at the right moment, the drums leave a gap for the next phrase or several voices briefly move as one. Those details connect the opening unaccompanied performance to the more produced songs around it, making the harmony a practical organising idea rather than a decorative addition.