The Beat Surrender

Oh this is painful for me to write it really is, I almost feel like Robert De Niro’s character in the King of Comedy when he realises his big hero played by Jerry Lewis isn’t quite the great guy he thought he was. Ok so slight exageration as The Hedrons aren’t my heroes and if you are reading this girls (unlikely), don’t worry I don’t have plans to kidnap you and replace you onstage one night.

The fact is though that as one off songs the singles have worked out ok and as far as Be My Friend goes, then even better than that. Live on stage the band come alive and it’s probably in that environment that you should probably catch them to enjoy them at their best. I saw them live in Leeds in a very small venue earlier this year and they were perfect live. They look good obviously, they play with fury and are a complete live package.

Transferred onto record though and the band lose a lot of that fury and the hooks aren’t quite as prominent as they are live. Listening to One More Won’t kill Us is a very disappointing affair. It starts off well enough with three singles in the opening four songs, including the brilliant Be My Friend, a song I still never tire of hearing now and the one track that has really transferred well onto the album from the live arena.

After that though things start to wane a little before falling apart completely. Falling Star is potentially good enough to be a single, after that you get six pretty average rock songs in a row, that attempt to throw in a little punk spirit but ultimately come up very short. Things only really start to lift with the epic by Hedrons standards (4 minutes 40 seconds is long for them) What Am I To Do which at least shows a slightly different side to the bands music. It’s reflective and subdued and actually stands out as one of the best songs on the album because of that.

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