[Online] Review: Beulah
By Daily Bruin Staff
Aug. 24, 2003 9:00 p.m.
Beulah “Yoko” Velocette Records
Somehow, some way, “Yoko” works. Beulah’s
fourth record is neither a collection of catchy singles nor a case
of the sum being greater than its parts. In “Yoko,” the
San Francisco sextet has crafted a straightforward indie pop album
with can’t-quite-put-a-finger-on-it appeal. The ambiguity
makes the band’s latest offering a sure thing.
Each song in the album has a mind of its own. The 10 tracks are
all discernably different from one another ““ not different in
a stylistic sense but in a structural sense. Frontman Miles Kurosky
doesn’t make “Yoko” an exercise in eclectic
experimentation, throwing random country tunes next to pop ballads
and jazz-infused jam sessions. Instead, Kurosky subtly adjusts the
emphasis from song to song. Listeners may find themselves drawn to
the repetitive “Baby says “¦” opening phrase
throughout “Landslide Baby,” almost wanting to ask out
loud what Baby really does say. Swampy, snarling guitars accentuate
“Your Mother Loves You Son,” the only pure rocker of
the bunch. In “Don’t Forget to Breathe,”
listeners are induced into swaying side to side during the
floating, weightless chorus.
However, the songs on “Yoko” do have a connection.
The overall mood of the album is consistently dark and melancholy.
The sweetness of 2001’s “The Coast is Never
Clear” is replaced with minor chords that are bittersweet yet
hopeful. “You’re Only King Once” and
“Hovering” are a cloudy afternoon with sunlight barely
piercing through the gloom. Even the jaunty frolic of “My
Side of the City” features vocals that are delivered in a
detached manner.
The absolute highlight of “Yoko” is the seemingly
never-ending closer “Wipe Those Prints and Run,” a pop
staple if there ever was one. The track not only serves as a
fitting bookend with the sexy opener “A Man Like Me”
but also makes this a classic pop album.
-By David Chang
