New MP3 from 2010's Big Pop Contenders The Morning Benders

Weston Walker

​I got a sneak listen to Big Echo, the new album due out in March from the Morning Benders. And I know it's early, but I already think this record could end up on my best of 2010 list. The group enlisted Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor as co-producer, and the songs are just slightly weirder than past Morning Benders releases, but they still maintain the group's ecstatic pop mood and sharp hook sensibility.

"Promises" is one of my favorite songs off Big Echo, and it's also the band's first single for 2010, available from iTunes this week, with a sneak listen available at Stereogum here.

Big Echo only gives me further confidence that this could be the year where San Francisco gets paid its proper attention from the national media. What with Girls in a recent issue of Rolling Stone, the Dodos on Letterman, and this Morning Benders record promising to woo the critics, it could be a great year in music for this city.