The Beat Surrender

Mark Morriss is of course the fey voiced lead-singer from Brit Pop band The Bluetones, a group that have fallen by the wayside of commercial success in recent years, but continue to function, tour and release new albums a plenty. Finding time in and amongst all this Morriss has also started to pursue a solo career, touring and now releasing his debut album.

I fell out of love with The Bluetones a good few years ago when they binned off a sold out gig in order to appear live on television, something I don’t think is forgivable no matter how much it might further their careers. At the end of the day it’s the fans that make and break you as an artist and you shouldn’t forget that.

I am though still listening to the band, just not with the same level of respect I had previously and of course that means I’m interested to hear Memory Muscle and see how it compares to The Bluetones more recent work (it was never going to match up to Expecting To Fly was it, let’s be honest!)

As an album it has some real high points, high points he may still have been able to explore with The Bluetones, but either way are damn fine pop nuggets. In and amongst these great tracks though come a few songs that even after three or four listens pass you by completely, which is where it falls down a little as an album.

The best song for me is opening track, How Maggie Got Her Bounce Back, it has to be a future single and is a better track than anything he’s done with his band this decade. Recent single I’m Sick starts off with a brilliant opening and then falls a bit flat in the vocals. So It Goes and Buckle Up, Baby Doll are completely misseable tracks like Digging A Hole and Unwanted Friend further on.

The first of two covers comes in the form of Alcoholiday a brilliant Teenage Fanclub cover that adds a jaunty edge to the original and he closes the album with a superb cover of Lee Hazelwood’s My Autumn’s Done Come which has a suitably lo-fi edge to it.

Lemon & Lime is one of the songs that you could imagine him writing with the rest of his band, an upbeat number with some wry lyrics and Lay Low is a nice ballad, that gives the album a pleasing change of pace and Bienvenido is again a track that has a classic Mark Morriss / Bluetones feel to it and could again be a good single release.

So an interesting album for any die hard fans, if you are looking for the next great singer-songwriter album then this isn’t it, but it does have some fun, quality moments to it as well as some good tracks that are well put together and poppy, it’s just a shame that a handful of tracks pass by without you noticing.

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