the beta band - heroes to zeros
long awaited third album this time self produced with a some touchups by nigel
godrich. tis about bloody time.
this album is by far the best thing i have heard in 2004 from a major label band. the lads have refined their sound to a well honed tight focussed set of catchy/infectious songs (12 songs - 41 minutes !) with each song having various elements of the bands well established musical madness and gorgeous hooks.
there are more straightforward pop songs on offer than in previous times, even incorporating the shocking u2 like guitars and full blown horn section on recent single 'assessment', but, fear not, this is not a full on rock-n-soul album. this is the beta band after all, and nothing is ever straightforward with this lot. the sonic landscape is still the same 'everything but the kitchen sink' type, there are the de facto to-die-for vocals by steve mason, looped harmonies, the ever so ramshackle beats, bohemian ambience, honky tonk pianos, plucked acoustic guitars harmonicas et cetera, et cetera. all of which end up taking the listener to far away worlds, where our superheroes battle with the robots of musical boredom with the mystical mop of sonic mayhem -see sleeve for details!
needless to say the guys have not gone on record yet saying that they hate this album as per their 1st lp .. i guess that means something.
the overall sound is of real instruments, but there has been a lot of modern studio trickery applied throughout, subtle computerised beats are processed with love and attention and weird sounds fly about. despite this off the wall approach the big difference is the sheer quality of the songs - no excess has been allowed (some may say that's its one loss - but i disagree) and there is genuinely not one dud track.
this is probably the best weird alt.pop album in the world - ever.
for the masses. enjoy it. wonderful in every aspect.