Bishop Allen took it upon themselves to generate some buzz last year. The project? An EP a month for a year, producing an incredible 58 songs and blog-load of hype and ecstatic write-ups. Now they've taken the cream of the crop and assembled a full-length for wider consumption. The verdict? The Broken String boasts more than enough great tunes to suggest their 2006 marathon was more than just an exercise in excess. Their take on literate folk-pop has plenty of contemporaries (Decemberists, Shins, Okkervil River), but they display enough wit and hooks to prove their worth.