Top Ten Albums of 2013 - #5
Beady Eye's BE
Editor's Note: This is the 6th in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2013. The 10th edition is wrapped into the larger year-end post I call "The Ho Media Awards", which will be published just after the new year. Stay tuned!
Beady Eye straddles the line between far-out and over-long in this, their second full album with this post-Oasis lineup. It's not that there are too many tunes, or even that all of them are too long, but that a couple (I'm looking at you, "Soul Love" and "Don't Brother Me") have extended outros that are a little much. But when they keep it fairly succinct, this album rocks.
The album proper is 11 songs long, with up to six bonus tracks, depending on where you bought it. Of those, only 2-3 are tracks I ever skip. The first single was "Second Bite of the Apple," which was quite a departure from the fairly straightforward rock that dominated their previous effort, promised plenty of brass this time around - and the rest of the album delivers. It's all still absurdly loud, which has the unfortunate effect of flattening Liam's already nasal vocal quality.
Most people seem to agree that this album is more cohesive than the last, but I don't hear it. This runs the sonic gamut from "Flick of the Finger" to "Ballroom Figured." It does flow very well, but I think it introduces some (welcome) variety to a palette that was maybe a little conservative so soon after the dissolution of Oasis.
My favorite single so far from the album: Shine A Light:
Album Highlights: Soon Come Tomorrow; Shine A Light; Ballroom Figured; Off At The Next Exit
Editor's Note: This is the 6th in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2013. The 10th edition is wrapped into the larger year-end post I call "The Ho Media Awards", which will be published just after the new year. Stay tuned!Beady Eye straddles the line between far-out and over-long in this, their second full album with this post-Oasis lineup. It's not that there are too many tunes, or even that all of them are too long, but that a couple (I'm looking at you, "Soul Love" and "Don't Brother Me") have extended outros that are a little much. But when they keep it fairly succinct, this album rocks.
The album proper is 11 songs long, with up to six bonus tracks, depending on where you bought it. Of those, only 2-3 are tracks I ever skip. The first single was "Second Bite of the Apple," which was quite a departure from the fairly straightforward rock that dominated their previous effort, promised plenty of brass this time around - and the rest of the album delivers. It's all still absurdly loud, which has the unfortunate effect of flattening Liam's already nasal vocal quality.
Most people seem to agree that this album is more cohesive than the last, but I don't hear it. This runs the sonic gamut from "Flick of the Finger" to "Ballroom Figured." It does flow very well, but I think it introduces some (welcome) variety to a palette that was maybe a little conservative so soon after the dissolution of Oasis.
My favorite single so far from the album: Shine A Light:
Album Highlights: Soon Come Tomorrow; Shine A Light; Ballroom Figured; Off At The Next Exit
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