Beta Band

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What should I buy by them? 3 E.P.s or Hot Shots II.

― ejad, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The 3 EPs is one of the most overrated releases I've ever bought. Everyone I've talked to loves it. I think it's a pile of echh- lectic junk. Even the "good songs" are drab. I know I'm in the overwhelming minority with this opinion.

― Sean, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes you are. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hot Shots II is the winner for me. 6 months ago I would have totally said 3 E.P.'s, but the R&B inspired beats of HSII has won me over. "Human Being" makes be bounce everytime I hear it.

― Brock K, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ooooh, Go for the 3 eps first if only for "Dry the rain" and "Dogs got a bone" but get Hot shots two too.

Don't discount the 1st album proper as, even though the band themselves have dismissed it as "The worst album ever made" it still contains the sublime and extremely odd "It's not too beautiful"

― Kris England, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Blah, I'm with Sean. It's virtually impossible to bore me, but the Beta Band's "3 EP's" does the job every time. The only thing within me that feels any excitement in response to, say, "Dry the Rain" is my long-dormant kill-all-the-hippies pUnK r0kKer, who starts looking for his Docs as soon as he hears them "revolutionary" acoustic-guitars-with-beats. Blah, sez I. Blah.

― John Darnielle, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

3 EPs - great in theory but I never play it. Actually worked better as 3 coherent EP units - the third one on its own is a terrific single.

First album - a bit of a dog's dinner and some bits are very dreary but plenty of it is brave and winningly whimsical.

To You Alone/Sequinsizer - must-buy interim single, in many ways goes further than the second album did.

Hot Shots II - excellent and deeply likeable record. At first I fell asleep every time I played it but clearly something subliminal was afoot because now I know and enjoy every minute. It's kind of what I always hoped hippie jam records would sound like.

― Tom, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Blah.

What, even "Dr. Baker"? Them's so pretty.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I sort of agree with Sean and John. It wouldn't call them junk, they're OK and all, but it's hardly sublime. They just plod along, nothing really grabs me. And I know it's not their fault, but I cannot stand that scene in High Fidelity.

― Arthur, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Go mad. Buy both. But the three EPs is way better than the unaccountably tedious Hot Shots II, which isn't even as good as the disowned first album. What 'R+B' influence? It turns out that the engineer had worked on a few weak British dance records in his time. Big deal. That does not make him a hot shot.

― Snotty Moore, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hot shots ii is one of my favorite albums ever.

― ethan, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i called hot shots ii my favorite album of 2001, but now i'm not wondering if i overrated it. it's still a fine piece of work. and like time, i also had a bit of beta narcolepsy, yet know it back to front. something afoot there. the self-titled record is one of the great acts of band wilfull-ness ever. (even greater because it - didnt- sink their "career.")

one of those bands where i think the next one will be even better...closer to the "real" beta band. and that's a fine thing indeed.

― jess, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and like time=like tom. that's an interesting (if oblique) slip.

― jess, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

it's hard not like the 3ep "hits" (dry rain etc.) and i won't deny playing them loudly and nodding along with them, but i feel dirty afterwards. sort of like listening to really great belle and sebastian tracks. or what i imagine it must be like to listen to moby.

i listen to the first album the most and i think it is very fun and ages well (i don't skip anything) and i like hot shots II quite a bit, but like the 3EPs it veers into territory that i usually keep reserved for power ballads.

― Paul Barclay, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Agree with the detractors above about 3 EPs. Nearly all love the Sympathy For The Devil/Loaded shuffle of Dry The Rain but the outstanding moments after that are few and far between, even after much repeated listening. Hot Shots II sounded impressive enough when I heard it in a big record store but I didn't bother dishing out for it.

― David Gunnip, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I adore HSII (it's been my default driving music since purchase) but I haven't gotten around to purchasing the 3 EPs or the self-titled. Tom's right about the To You Alone/Sequinsizer single, too.

― Mitch Lastnamewitheld, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

HS II seems poor driving music -- where's the driving beat and the crunchy guitar? It feels yuppie to drive with it.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"To You Alone" is the best song they've released, IMO. Also, while "Dry The Rain" is fun, the truly great song on _The 3 EPs_ is "B + A".

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

HS2 is easily a first buy. get it. get it now! EVERYONE!

first album IS a bit (ahem) uneven, but contains some mysteriously wonderful stuff. 3 eps has high peaks and low low troughs.

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The problem, as I see it, with The Three E.P.'s is not the album as a whole, but the second E.P. (The Patty Patty Sound), which is the most self-indulgent and pretentious bit of musical wank i've heard. The rest is top quality though.

― Luke Alford, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm a touch bemused over the reactions to HSII, I didn't expect so many people to outright lurve it. It is very enjoyable, though -- I have a fondness for the last song (not the American version bonus track, the actual last song) and live opening for Radiohead they were their usual shaggy selves, bless 'em. And Kid Koala's jam on "The House Song" didn't hurt.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Patty Patty Sound is superb - best of the EPs by a mile. I am being very contrary today, but not deliberately honest.

I was completely underwhelmed by HSII at first, but I warmed to it a lot last time I put it on. Must listen to it some more.

― Jeff W, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A Qualification, for Sterling: "it's been my default driving music when it's around mid-evening and I'm in no real hurry to reach my destination. Say, returning from a long 'varsity day and being too tired to speed home. Other favourites on Mitch's tinny car radio: Weezer (crunchy guitar) and Basement Jaxx (beats).

― Mitch "Upwardly Mobile" Lastnamewithheld, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ned, the last song on hs2 is clearly the worst of the bunc, i.e. it's where their noxious hippy side is in full effect! ;)

― jess, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Fiddle. You just don't wanna sing along none. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bah, EVERYONE knows the best song on The Hots Shots II is "Gone". Although "Broke" comes close, and I could have killed whoever decided to leave "Won" off the Australian version. But yeah, very nice album, although I don't hold it in quite so high esteem as others here.
And the best E.P. is also clearly "Los Amigos Beta Bandidos". Each E.P. was better than the one preceding it.
― Tim, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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