Kevin Bronson on March 8th, 2010

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To say that the Morning Benders’ “Big Echo” represents a creative leap is a bit of an understatement. The Bay Area-based quartet’s sophomore album – which comes out Tuesday on Rough Trade – sounds as if someone fast-forwarded Christopher Chu and company from puppy love straight into midlife crisis.

The Benders’ 2008 debut, “Talking Through Tin Cans,” was all prickly guitars and rosy cheeks, the sonic equivalent to lovelorn scribbles (though well-executed ones) on the back of a high school binder. By comparison, “Big Echo” is grad-level literature. Chu and bandmates Julian Harmon, Timothy Or and Jonathan Chu (Christopher’s brother, who replaced Joe Ferrell) ratchet up the arrangements and douse their newfound worldliness in warm atmospherics, some of which come courtesy of co-producer Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear.

• ||| Download: “Promises” (previously posted) and “Excuses” (e-mail required).

• ||| Stream: “Big Echo” here.

Meanwhile, frontman Chu (the Santa Monica native who’s also had a hand in producing new music from Miniature Tigers and So Many Wizards) wrestles with the big stuff now that he’s all of 24. He muses on life’s vagaries in “Promises” and “Excuses;” finds a vivid metaphor in “Wet Cement;” gets almost jazzy in “Mason Jar;” and counterposes his boyish tenor with noisy dramatics to find an epic sweep in “Pleasure Sighs” and “All Day Daylight.”

I recently caught up with Chu via telephone from New York:

People are talking about this album a lot, and it doesn’t seem to be just the Grizzly Bear connection.

Christopher Chu: It’s kind of become a storm already, which is nice. We didn’t really do anything except put some [songs on the Internet], but some kids seem to be really liking it and sharing it with their friends.

I remember back in 2008 when we chatted about “Talking Through Tin Cans,” you couldn’t wait to get your next batch of songs out there …

CC: I’d written another album around the time of the “Tin Cans” stuff, but this isn’t it. We never released that. We wrote a whole new album that is a better reflection of the direction we’re going in. With the first album, we went into the studio with a songs rooted in a certain era – the ’60s and the ’70s and classic rock – and with a small set of instruments. The limitations were self-imposed. With this album, it was a matter of getting rid of all those kinds of limitations, to not impose anything on ourselves. I think the result is an album that sounds a lot freer and fresher.

The new songs are still pop songs, but maybe with a more complex backdrop?

CC: I think that’s a good way to put it. There are still the classic songwriting influences from the ’60s and ’70s – I still try to write songs that work when you just break them down to acoustic guitar and voice.

Did you go into this with any fears that you might repeat yourself on your sophomore record?

CC: I didn’t think of this in terms of it being a sophomore record, but I did want to go someplace new. Toward the end of “Talking Through Tin Cans” and touring, I was ready to move on.

Not just sonically but topically?

CC: Yeah, I think so. I think one of the reasons “Big Echo” sounds the way it does is because there’s a different lyrical feel. The arrangements had to support the songs. I think “Big Echo” sounds a lot bigger – “Tin Cans” was more of a relationship record, but “Big Echo” deals with a lot of the things I was going through during that process – and time, I guess. With the themes of getting older. You always think of yourself as so young; you live in the moment. But this is a matter of me looking back … on the abstract, often illogical timeline of my life.

You made the album with Chris Taylor – did you have to wrestle any Grizzly Bears?

CC: Actually, we recorded the album ourselves in San Francisco, then worked with Chris in the mixing process. We tracked the whole thing in 9 1/2 days, which is really fast. Then I took it to New York, and we found in the mixing process that there was a lot that needed tweaking. It ended up taking three times as long to mix as it did to make. It’s amazing that Chris was able to help us make it sound like it does.

And now your brother is in the band too?

It’s been great. There’s just less you have to say when you work with somebody you grew up with, listening to the same music with.

||| The album: Highly recommended.

||| Live: The Morning Benders perform March 25 at the Troubadour and March 27 at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.

Photo by Matt Jakoby