Music Review

01 December 2008 21:05 BST

Brakes: The Beatific Visions

Rough Trade, November 6th.

In a nutshell…

Inimitable, inventive, entertaining, thoughtful, dissolute.

What's it all about?

Beatific Visions is the follow up to Give Blood, the Brakes' breathtaking debut album that finished before you knew you'd pressed play. It was a raucous and unmitigated run through of covers and enigmatic rock 'n' roll and it threw up some absolute gems. Ring A Ding Ding was not only a great title for a song, but a screeching and stormy one and a half minutes of undressed poetry.

At times Brakes were political, Cheney was ten seconds of the band screaming "Cheney don't be such a dick!" The Beatific Visions is more of the same, but reveals the sound of a band who have taken their time without losing that frantic feeling. Porcupine Or Pineapple is the follow-up to Cheney, slamming the Iraq war and asking the sensible question: "Who won the war, what the f**k was it for?" Hold Me In The River is the closest thing to Ring A Ding Ding, but the sound is more thoughtful and prolonged.

Who's it by?

Brakes are an incestuous hybrid of British Sea Power and Electric Soft Parade. Eamon Hamilton attempted in vain to be the lead in Brakes and the enigmatic keyboardist/guitarist/crazed drummer in British Sea Power, but elected to give up BSP to lead Brakes on the path to glory. Tom White and Alex White formed the ESP contingent (confused yet?) and Marc Beatty made up the fourpiece.

Give Blood was such a success that Brakes couldn't take a back seat any longer, when Eamon came into the crowd at BSP gigs, helmet in toe, suddenly it was more "that's the bloke from Brakes". Thankfully they are now a full time band and The Beatific Visions is the fruits of their labour.

As an example…

"They say 'Eamon, tell us how to keep our garden growing'/ I say 'try lying on the grass thinking of Scarlett Johansson'." Eamon manages to make this line sound even better than it does on the page, perhaps Ms Johansson's first rock 'n' roll reference?

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

Brakes seem to appear on the scene when you're not looking, they have a cult following just like their parent bands. Awards ceremonies don't really apply.

What the others say

"Short but sweet. The result is an album that, brilliantly, is as exciting as it is original-sounding." BBC

"Blurring lines rather than harshly mixing it up, The Beatific Visions may not be as immediately loveable as Give Blood, but it's still got some hellz-a-poppin' moments." Thisisfakediy.co.uk

So is it any good?

When Give Blood was truncated The Beatific Visions delivers a rounded and accessible album. The harsh sounding guitar on Margarita is effortlessly trumped by Eamon's howling vocal of "Margarita/follow the leader" and If I Should Die Tonight contrasts this with a reminder of the quality of the band's song writing. It's a gentle and melodious tune that makes you rock from side to side rather than up and down.

The crazy moments are still here, with Porcupine Or Pineapple taking your headphone volume up by about 15 notches. But it's with songs like Mobile Communication that Brakes triumph over all competition and Eamon reveals the true extent of his vocal range. The truth is that this record is better than anything BSP have released and it sets the standard for his former band. Spring chicken is another highlight and could quite easily be a successful single. Played live it would turn Jet, including their bearded drummer, into a gibbering pile of mulch with wet trousers and embarrassed expressions.

Isabel, a slowly plucked acoustic song, is similarly fantastic and reminds fans of the times when Eamon would take Brakes on tour on his own, armed with just his guitar. On Your Side evokes memories of a 60s rock 'n' roll heyday, it would be at home played at Brixton Academy or in a bar in Tennessee, it simply abandons all preconceptions. The Beatific Visions is another short and sweet record from Brakes, but it inspires and enthrals in equal measure and is a tribute to how far this band should go.

8/10

Karl Pike