Listen to this album in full while you read the review by clicking .
The Brakes were formed, in part, by members of and . Today, the band goes by the repetitive, un-capitalized name brakesbrakesbrakes in the U.
S. due to a name conflict with a little-known American band. The newly named brakesbrakesbrakes were formed in Brighton circa 2002, and a couple years later they landed a single deal with the Rough Trade subsidiary Tugboat Records.
In 2005 they released their debut full-length titled and two days ago they gave us The Beatific Visions.
The new album was built with a bigger budget, which can sometimes be the kiss of death, or a launching pad to the next level. In this case, it doesn rsquo;t seem that either is the case.
It is however, more good music devoid of pretense.
The tracks are a mish-mash of straight-up rock songs, ballads, whimsical ditties, political thrashers, and even a 50 rsquo;s influenced song titled ldquo;Spring Chicken rdquo; that could create the biggest dance craze since the Macarena. Okay, maybe not.
It would seem that such diversity would make for an uneven listen, but it rsquo;s not really the case, even though bass player Marc Beatty admits to the irregular nature of the album when he says, ldquo;I like to think of this album as the soundtrack to a great battle between good and evil where the world almost cracks in half, sucking everyone into a life of eternal darkness and misery. There rsquo;s so much fucked-up shit going on in this world that it rsquo;s hard not to pass comment on it in our music. But as much as it rsquo;s important to us to write about that kind of stuff, there rsquo;s a lot of love and romance in there too.
rdquo;
I rsquo;m gonna go out on a limb here and say that The Beatific Visions is not the ldquo;soundtrack to a great battle between good and evil where the world almost cracks in half, sucking everyone into a life of eternal darkness and misery rdquo;, but don rsquo;t let that discourage you.
The songs tie together well in an album format, and it rsquo;s extensively peppered with some great hooks and witty lyrics. But it rsquo;s the drunken British accent folded so masterfully into the vocals of Eamon Hamilton that helps brakesbrakesbrakes stand apart in the crowded market of indie pop.
Onward British soldiers.
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