The Best of the Beta Band is a funny beast. And in 2001, what Hot Shots II was offering- guitars meet Timbaland, to be reductive- was pretty much all many of us wanted from a rock band.Ī best-of released in the aftermath of an ignominious break-up always feels a little less radiant than a best-of from a band who went out on a high note. It's pretty clear they weren't the assholes here: There's not a single band in the past year with the balls- or lack of sense, your call- to release a debut album as overgrown with ideas (not always good ones, mind you) as The Beta Band. They were as exhausted as we were and broke up. Then they released an album of pleasant, conventional indie rock and couldn't even get castigated. Then they toned down the shit-talking and liberties-taking and accentuated the beat-science and hippie-gentleness, and they got castigated for it. Then they released an album that did go anywhere, and they got castigated for it. If they loved the Beta Band so much, why did people give them so much shit while they were still alive? Their early development was so startling- from pleasant late 90s stoner-hop to a startling mix of folk, kraut, and acid house in less than six months- that we just assumed they could go anywhere.
0 kommentar(er)
