Beep Beep

Confusion is likely to stir while listening to Beep Beep, at least during the first two tracks, because you can’t tell if it’s really, really good in that art-appreciation kind of way, or just really, really bad. It starts leaning towards the former by the third song, "Misuse Their Bodies.” For a few brief bars, it sounds very close to a mid-era Cure reincarnation, but that’s over as soon as it’s heard. The song then transforms into a raging, pulsating vessel that ebbs between delicate sadness and aching aggression, at times almost pretty and others almost vicious as it tears down the walls of a rubber room. Business Casual slips back into being an oddity mid-way through, but later picks up that faint Cure-esque echo again, and even starts to sound not unlike Hot Hot Heat on the striking track, "Electronic Wolves.” The step back to the Cure isn’t such a stretch considering Beep Beep’s influences stem from the past, more specifically the ’80s, taking notes on style from XTC, Kate Bush and Wire. This band is definitely not afraid to step out of the standard songwriting formulas, and have created an extremely eclectic debut album. There are times though when it can get strange and inaccessible, like when too many "bleeps” and "bloops” are thrown in there, or strangled, high pitched vocals that almost don’t sound serious. These eccentricities aside, there are some songs on here that are just so good; so frenetic and lost in abandonment. Hopefully they won’t become lost in an album bent on being erratic before anyone can hear them.