Perhaps they're happily stuck in the past, but there's no denying that when they have a hook or melody -- and when they have a savvy producer like Sitek supporting them -- they deliver the retro goods.
‘BE’ is certainly an improvement on ‘Different Gear...’, but it’s more of a tentative step in the right direction than a great leap forward.
The vocals, the terrible rhymes... it's business as usual then for Liam; it's just scrubbed up a bit.
This follow-up has its share of the usual “spread your wings and learn to FLAIIIIEE” hokum, but also moments – the lazily imperious ‘Flick Of The Finger’ and ‘Iz Rite’ among them – that remind us how we’d miss him if he went.
Although the musical advance Beady Eye have made in BE does not extend to the clumsy lyrics, Liam shows he is not just a balls-out bawler and the band sound sharp. It looks like they might be around for a while yet.
BE is somewhat more adventurous than Different Gear, and certainly more dynamic.
Losing the man responsible for the songs that made anyone care about Oasis spelled disaster, and after skimming by on their debut, Be sounds exactly like a band that has lost its songwriter.
BE is too often clunky n’ hollow and surprisingly downbeat n’ dog-tired.
The two biggest problems with BE are thus; the energy that made their first LP a surprisingly decent effort has been removed completely, and Liam’s lyrics have plumbed to new, previously unassailable depths of self-parody.
At its best the same bland and uninspired shite that Liam has spent his career peddling, at its worst genuinely unpleasant.
Favourites:
Flick of the Finger,Soul Love,Second Bite of the Apple,Soon Come Tomorrow,Iz Rite,I'm Just Saying,Start Anew,The World's Not Set In Stone
The problem is that they still haven't got the mind or the heart to BE someone worth checking!
1 | Flick of the Finger 3:47 | 81 |
2 | Soul Love 5:10 | 70 |
3 | Face the Crowd 4:02 | 60 |
4 | Second Bite of the Apple 3:28 | 70 |
5 | Soon Come Tomorrow 4:58 | 70 |
6 | Iz Rite 3:27 | 60 |
7 | I'm Just Saying 3:45 | 60 |
8 | Don't Brother Me 7:30 | 60 |
9 | Shine a Light 5:04 | 60 |
10 | Ballroom Figured 3:31 | 70 |
11 | Start Anew 4:29 | 70 |