The Bees - 'Free The Bees' (Virgin)
4/5
By: Toby L
The Bees. Purveyors of scally-Scouse-esque (but-really-from-the-poxy-Isle-of-Wight) chimes and tones, with harmonious vocals and '60s guitars, plus waltzing keys, blaring brass and hideously indebted-to-da-past psychedelia trappings that suggest far too many drugs.
Of course, we love it. Not just because it's hip to indulge upon bands that stupidly blend more genres together than perhaps truly viable (The Zutons, The Coral, to a more-considerable-extent, the preceding Beta Band), but also because there's a kitsch-ness to The Bees which is shamelessly overt. These are songs, played and constructed masterfully, with a knowing zeal of outright silliness. And, by gosh, isn't it good to shake a leg to?
'Free The Bees' is the band's debut for a major-label, and it's aptly grandiose. Their first LP 'Sunshine Hit Me' was quietly landmark - remember the Mercury nomination? - released as it was on a humble indie (We Love You), but 'Free...' is an inspired collage of pop-fuelled strides set to grace and caress the ears of the soon-to-be-doting masses - and it marks a worthy intro.
It starts, anthemically enough, with the organ-shimmering 'These Are The Ghosts' and continues the fervent (well, for them) end of things with the Beatles-chug of 'Wash In The Rain', quietly euphoric with its sultry choral-refrain and plinky piano - and just wait for that squelching guitar-solo: up to its tits in sassy, valve-y distortion.
It then goes a bit bloody weird. We get: the jagged riffage and carnival-keys of 'No Atmosphere'; the 50s r 'n' r twist of 'Chicken Payback' (Tarantino would gently vibrate with foaming perspiration, and duly sign this up as part of a gruesomely putrid shoot-'em-up in 'Kill Bill: 8' if he got the chance); the funky hip-thrusts of 'The Russian'; lilting Lennon stammer of 'The Start'; smooth, bassy slink of 'Hourglass'; choral playfulness of 'One Glass Of Water', like a thrilling timewarp to a school-disco full of zombie disc-jockeys and tanked-up-on-acid seven-year-olds; and the irresistible pop-closer in 'This Is The Land'.
By its end, though flummoxed, you're a different person. An instant convert. Who knows if you'll ever want to return to go back to before; we're certain we don't.
Artists in this article: The Bees
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