Album Review: Exhausting The Muse

For anyone who has come across Bevan Mical’s single, Weekend, we now have an album which is very similar in style and approach to that song, which is one of the 11 songs in the set. When I reviewed that previously, I said it needed repeated playing to get the most out of it, but somewhat strangely the familiarity throughout the album works in the same way, so that the more one gets through this the more there is to enjoy. Bevan famously said that he is inspired by all forms of music from Fraggle Rock to Eminem, Crowded House to P!nk, and one can certainly imagine this music being featured on Jim Henson’s show. It may be naive, with some dated drum machine at times, but the vocals and acoustic guitar combined with keyboards is incredibly catchy and there are plenty of hooks and fun to be had.

There are little lyrical and musical jokes here and there as well. For example, during Me, there is the line Silence is Golden, so the song immediately stops for a couple of seconds and then starts up again as if nothing had happened. Contrast the lyrics in that song to You!!!, which are far more suitable to hardcore or extreme metal than pop, although again there is a twist in the last line. It is only by listening to a complete album that one really understands Bevan’s approach, in that while there are strong similarities in the songs which carry throughout, this adds to the homeliness and instead of diminishing, adds to the overall effect.

This is lightweight alternative pop music which must be enjoyed for what it is, simple and with no deep layers to be uncovered. That in itself is somewhat refreshing, as what you hear from Bevan in the first song is pretty much what you are going to get through the whole album. There is no show, this is straightforward, with Bevan being honest, so what you hear is what you get and this certainly grows on you by the end.