The Beta Band (1999)

The Beta Band's first proper album was hailed as "the worst album of the year" and "f&*#ing awful" (this is a family blog) by the band itself. Granted, the album is a mess, but it's a beautiful mess. It's safe to say that the band resides in the weirder realms of my music collection, but, both before and after this album, the band was constantly doing fine-tuning along the spectrum.

The previous year, the band garnered a good deal of attention by combining their first three EP's into a single album, cleverly called The Three EP's. While many are inclined to just accept it as their de facto first album, it's actually better appreciated by its component EP's. Champion Versions (1997) and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos (1998) were fairly "normal" outings, while The Patty Patty Sound (1998), released between the two, is, by all measures, a strange one. It's almost as if the band is "reacting" to its preceding recording. I'll save a detailed analysis of the early years for whenever I finally dial up The Three EP's for the blog. For now, I'll posit that the self-titled album was reacting to the tameness of their third EP.

From the opening track of this album, you know it's going to be a wild ride. "The Beta Band Rap" is a triptych of "Mr. Sandman", hip-hop, and rockabilly that somehow manages to tell the story of the band up to this point. Although I've heard this song many times, I'm still incapable of relating the story back. Maybe some OCD-afflicted soul has transcribed this to a lyrics site somewhere. "It's Not Too Beautiful" is the second track and the standout of the ten. Hate on this album as they do, I was pleased to see it remained in their live show through the rest of the band's lifespan. Sampling John Barry's score to "The Black Hole"? Genius. "Simple Boy" is a short and unremarkable song except for the fact the bass put my car's Bose speakers to the test. "Around the Bend", if I call correctly, was the most promoted track of the album, though I can't say if it was a proper single. Like the best parts of The Three EP's, it has a more acoustic feel, with trademark rambly lyrics thrown in for good measure. "Dance O'Er the Border" continues what the previous song started in the lyrics department, a maybe-not-intentional stream of consciousness approach, but now set to a thumping dance floor beat. Jangly guitars return for "Brokenupadingdong", later overtaken by some impressive percussion work, presumably by Robin Jones, all of which worked like a cup of strong coffee on my morning drive.

Up to this point I don't think I'd be out of line to call the band's criticism of the album out of line. However, the last four tracks show signs of fatigue. "Number 15" just isn't that exciting a song and "Smiling" is about 6 minutes longer than it needs to be. For close observers, though, it is a relative to "Monolith" from The Patty Patty Sound (where "Dry the Rain" was the past, "Smiling" was the future, though listeners in 1998 didn't know it yet!). About the best thing I can say about "The Hard One" is that I still love how they mess up the lyrics to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" such that now the singer is always falling in love. In fact, I think I like that better. The downside is that 10 minutes of this is a bit wearing. Finally, "The Cow's Wrong"? I still have no idea what's going on here, but it's the only appearance of Gordon Anderson in the credits of the album.

Aside from Robert Christgau (the embodiment of everything wrong with music criticism), most people will rank this album lower than The Three EP's. It's understandable, keeping in mind that album routinely appears on 1990's best-album lists. However, with the gift of hindsight, we know that a more "synthetic" future lay ahead for the band. Also, everything was tightened up considerably for the next album, Hot Shots II, most likely in reaction to this album. While technically a more coherent effort, much of the charm present on this album was absent from that one, an (in yet another reaction!) only partly restored on their final album.