The Beat Surrender

This is one of the longest albums I’ve reviewed for some time, fifteen tracks in total, kicks off with six seconds of tape spooling, what’s that all about…

A double act from Leamington Spa, Luke Concannon and John Parker, whose biggest hit to date was that terribly annoying track The JCB Song, only good thing about that was they kept Westlife from the No. 1 spot at Christmas. When I say terribly annoying I have to admit that at first I quite liked it but it was played to death and eventually it really grated. So I was happy to review the new album if only to see if they can fulfil some of what was promised with JCB and the current single.

First real track is current single release from this album Start Beginning, I reviewed this only the other week and have to say that playing it again I actually started to like this, its a happy catchy sound with well written lyrics and if not over played on the radio could be catchy enough to be a minor hit.

I’m Alive Again is a strange track that has gospel influences then jumps to rap, then almost grinds to a stop its so slow. Overall for me the mix just didn’t work it was too jumbled up. The next track Find Me, I liked the double bass, its a really good sound and works well for this band, the uniqueness of Luke Concannon’s vocals are what makes this band stand out, however they can also be the undoing of them in that to much of a good thing isn’t always what you want. On this track they started to grate a little, also it didn’t help that all I could think of while listening was this sounds like one of those happy clappy song you might hear in a modern church, not for me.

Odd intro on the next track, Feel Inside, its slightly faster than some of the other tracks, good beat which overall gives it a better feel to me. Does make reference to bulldozers, perhaps the JCB element is still alive!! also as a little of the rap which this time works really well. I liked the bongo’s on Last Night In Dakar, however the vocals were just a little weak for the track, couldn’t quite catch the lyrics which was a shame. A slower number was Drop Your Guard, its got quite a melancholy feel to it, sadly this is the longest track on the album, four minutes and sixteen seconds in total, for me just a bit to long, I like my tracks at between two and half minutes to three maximum.

The next track was one of my personal favourites, The One is a nice love song, lovely lyrics sung from the heart, it had a really meaningful sound to it. I think this is strong enough to be a single release. The next track “Part Of Me” is a belter, not sure entirely what the lyrics are all about, I have never heard Margaret Thatcher and Amy Winehouse mentioned in the same sentence before but along with many others including a girlfriend and himself I guess its some sort of protest song, I liked it even if I wasn’t sure what it was about.

One of the weakest tracks on the album has to be the next track Without You, can’t quite put my finger on what it was that made me feel it was weaker, perhaps a combination of the lyrics not being as strong or meaningful and the weaker vocals, whatever it was it just didn’t stand out much.

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