Shambolic brain twister
The Beta Band – Lion Thief.mp3
It almost passed unnoticed — almost no record company support and no US tour(?) — but the final album from the Beta Band is a great little piece of new century psychedelia. As on their best work (“The Three EPs,” natch), the songs are built up from little snippets of ideas that barely seem to make a whole. Yet somehow the songs and the whole album hold together. It’s a grower.
Every time I listen to this one I’m reminded of the shambolic nature of The White Album. It’s a bunch of shards, a bunch of mind-altered guys each off on their own trip in the studio, but still pretty empathetic in terms of the musical needs required by a given song. Is it any surprise that this band is no more? Heroes To Zeros indeed.
The title is a brain twister. Doesn’t it just look wrong? It sure hurts to type.
