Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beulah's last is at least a marvelous goodbye, June 30, 2005
Sadly, unless Miles Kurosky and the other members of Beulah decide to reform at some point, this is the last Beulah album that we are going to get. At least we have the consolation that the band left us with three exceedingly good albums. Critical opinion seems to divide over which of the three is their finest. If one prefers the horns and intricate use of strings and other instruments, one will tend to prefer WHEN YOUR HEARTSTRINGS BREAK and THE COAST IS NEVER CLEAR, probably with a nod towards the former. As much as I like those two albums, I prefer the slightly sparer sound of YOKO. Although I never find the arrangements on those two albums distracting or overwhelming (indeed, I find their arrangements to always be restrained and exceedingly apt, and definitely one of the highpoints of those two albums), I am at heart a minimalist and gravitate towards smaller line ups and fewer instruments. For me, less is always more. So on a purely personal level, YOKO is just naturally the kind of album that is more likely to appeal to me.
Interestingly, though they have cut way back on the horns and strings and back up vocalists and musicians, the album feels more plugged in than the previous two efforts. On several cuts like "Landslide Baby" or "My Side of the City" there is an intensity that one rarely finds on the earlier albums. Not that the lyrical delicacy that is one of the hallmarks of the band is missing. There are numerous lo-fi gems on the album, such as "You're Only King Once," which even reintroduces the strings and horns that typify the earlier discs. The album also highlights the country sounds that were sometimes to be found earlier discs, and a number of places some delightful country guitar licks are to be found, often in places where not expected, such as in the marvelously titled "Me and Jesus Don't Talk Anymore." But the big change in this album compared to the earlier ones is in the content of the lyrics. There is more heartache, more darkness, less playful joy, as if the previous two years had been bad ones in Kurosky's life. Many of the songs appear addressed to someone who has departed, and while songs never necessarily reflect actual events in the writer's life, they frequently do.
I wouldn't necessarily argue that this is Beulah's best album, but after repeated listenings I have to confess that it is the one I most enjoy.
It is a constant source of mystery to me why bands like Beulah don't make it while a host of mediocre performers and bands do. The most I've been able to conclude is that physical appearance is a huge consideration. I definitely like Garbage, but if Shirley Manson hadn't fronted it, would they have made it? Think of all the bands that stand out only because they are visually memorable, despite bland or even awful results in the studio. Billy Corgan understood this, and deliberately chose some of the members of Smashing Pumpkins for what they contributed to the band visually rather than musically (figuring he could carry the band musically himself). Beulah, while one of the finest bands to emerge in recent years, was a strikingly unexciting group of guys to look at. Not one member of the band looked like a rock star. I hate to think that the contemporary music industry can be reduced to such stupidities, but what if each member of the band had dyed their hair a different absurd color, and changed their name to that color, and called the band itself RESERVOIR DOGS? What if Miles Kurosky had become Mr. Pink and Bill Swan Mr. Purple? Of course it would have been a stupid conceit, but think of all the bands that manage to make it exploiting such conceits, while stellar bands like Beulah do not? Ultimately, the responsibility for such silliness must rest on the shoulders of the fans. If we wouldn't go see bands like my fictitious Reservoir Dogs, and completely backed bands by going to see (no, record purchasing won't do it, since virtually all bands make their money by live shows-the record companies make the money from record sales) great bands like Beulah, maybe we'd start to see all the crappy bands fade away, and the great ones stick around for a while.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My, Look How You've Grown, October 23, 2003
It's raining as I'm writing this, and I've just realized that this is a wonderful rainy day album- particulary one with a rainbow after the showers. I wasn't that convinced after listening to the first four tracks. They're all pretty good, but my expectations for this record were very high. After track 4, an average rock song entitled My Side of the City, I was starting to get a little disappointed. That all changed when the next song began. When Hovering creeped on in a discordant, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot manner, I was immediately enthralled. From Hovering on, this album radiates sorrowful glows of longing, love and compassion. Hovering jangles on in a discouraging slowrock fashion with a softly tinkling piano adding its tears to the brilliant and beautiful jumble of music and emotions. Me and Jesus Don't Talk Anymore sways back and forth from dissonant meandering and pop explosions, rendering another splendid hodgepodge of heartfelt lyrics and soaring melodies. Fooled with the Wrong Guy is another tough track to understand. It sounds so sad, but it makes me feel so good. This is one of my favorite songs on the cd. Your Mother Loves You Son rolls back into the rock spectrum with a biting snap and more wry, pungent lyrics and some phenomenal chords. You might forget to breathe when listening to the next track, Don't Forget to Breathe. It's just an incredibly captivating song the whole way through, a perfectly arranged number. I didn't think to highly of the seven and a half minute coda upon first listen, but Wipe Those Prints and Run wore off on me the more I listened. The best part of it is probably the last 40 seconds, when everything boils down to an old scratchy 45 sound with just Miles' lonely vocals and his blissful folk strumming. Let Yoko into your heart. It's something very special.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Oh "Yoko", October 17, 2004
At least Beulah's swan song was a good one. The Elephant 6 band recently played their farewell show in New York, but their farewell album "Yoko" came out a year before. Steeped in sadness and the feeling of breaking up, this album seems a fitting finale, if not the best they ever did.
A hostile edge enters with songs like rocker "My Side of the City," and the bitter "Landslide Baby" ("It's a lie, it's a cop-out and I know you know I know why/you won't try, cause you're scared and you're weak") while "Fooled with the Wrong Guy" is panoramic pop. "Me and Jesus Don't Talk Anymore" is a plaintive, almost schizo song that sweeps from fuzzy to melodic, but the finale is somehow the most touching part -- a gradual wind-down to just the bare basics of music.
Around the time "Yoko" was recorded, three band members divorced and vocalist Miles Kurosky broke up with his longtime girlfriend. So the sound is completely different from "The Coast is Never Clear" -- where that album was bright, this one is dark, pensive and shedding a tear or two in the middle of the night.
The sound is less 60s pop, and more an autumnal, Kurosky and Bill Swan provide some solid guitarwork, alternately sweet and spiky. Swan's brass accompaniment is also followed by some solid keyboard, bass and interesting drums. A lot of passion seems to be poured into the music, as if the band is experiencing a bit of a catharsis.
Those who hate emo, be warned -- Kurosky borders on emo at times in this album, as he bleeds his heart's blood all over the songs. "Try wasting all your days/on a man/a man like me," he warns his nameless lover, before pleading, "Smile, please smile/I just want you happy" and "I've got the biggest heart/you've ever torn apart."
Beulah's fourth album not only heralded the breakups of marriages and relationships, but later the band as well. But at least they left us a depressingly beautiful finale in "Yoko."
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