Beady Eye - BE

Beady Eye are back in the spotlight for the release of their second album, BE. It's a record that bursts forth from the off, announcing its arrival with surging guitars and blaring horns; literally. 

Album opener 'Flick of the Finger' kicks things off in great fashion. It's the kind of song that makes you want to walk away from explosions in slow motion and without a doubt one of the best tracks I've heard this year. The spoken word part over the final 30-seconds only adds to this sense of arrival, poetry and 'revolution'.

This is followed up by a cracking track, 'Soul Love'. A relatively tender love-song, 'Soul Love' is particular highlight that sees Liam croons 'come into my world' and 'everything I do, it's all for you'. The lyrics aren't the most original thing in the world but I really liked the hushed and tranquil melody underneath; the final minute of this track fades away into a void, almost like you'd hear from The xx.

Things keep motoring in fantastic fashion with 'Face the Crowd', an faster tempo track that is solid rock'n'roll stuff. Other tracks that stood out for me were 'Soon Come Tomorrow' and the foot-tapping 'I'm Just Saying'. I'm going to skate over track 6, 'Iz Rite'. It's a decent track but that title is crap. It's almost as bad Arctic Monkeys with 'R U Mine' or Nick Cave with 'We Know Who U R'. I mean seriously people, just spell your song titles properly. How hard is that?

Things start to take a funny turn in the middle with 'Don't Brother Me'. I'm sure it's supposed to be all deep and heart-felt, an ode to Liam's notoriously troubled relationship with his brother Noel but an odd sitar section  just comes across as odd. It's a bit of a misstep in my opinion.

At over seven minutes, it drags a fair bit and I felt compelled to reach for the skip button. Never a good sign. It sounds too psychedelic and late-Beatles (even comes with a quick lyrical reference with 'give peace a chance'). I didn't connect with it and it stood out like ketchup on a wedding dress.

'Shine a Light' brings the tempo back up again with some fuzzy, feedback-style synths and jangly guitars however. It does however also drag a little; I felt a minute or so could have been shaved off the end and it would have been a better track for it.

'Ballroom Figured' is a nice, melodic acoustic track that has some great vocals to match. Personally, I liked this track quite a lot. It doesn't push the envelope of the band's music writing ability and that might be an excuse to skip for some people. People might say it sounds a little too much like Oasis (oops, I dropped the O-word in a Beady Eye review, somebody shoot me) but I say similarities and parallels are inevitable.

I'll stick my neck out and say that I liked this album more than their first, Different Gear Still Speeding. Coupled with Miles Kane's latest album, Don't Forget Who You Are, it's been a cracking month for British rock.

Beady Eye - BE: 7/10

Download these: Flick of the Finger, Face the Crowd, I'm Just Saying, Ballroom Figured