The Beauty Room - The Beauty Room II

Narcissistic

The music on this album is often so pretty that it must look at itself in utter adulation. It already holds up a mirror to the harmony and string sounds of the 60s and 70s, with various reviews citing influences like Brian Wilson, CSN&Y [well, you have to if there’s harmony], and The Doobie Brothers, but I’ve also caught shimmering reflections of Yes, Steely Dan and Freedy Johnson as well as Police/just Sting at their/his harmonising best, or not if you are a devotee of Police’s punkier roots – or if you just detest them/him.

It’s not wall-to-wall perfection, and at times the sweeping strings are far too lounge-lite and limp, this latter alliterative adjective also apt in describing many of the lyrics: the dreadful repetition of ‘open up the sky’ on One Man Show, and the direness of But For Now, ‘you draw me in, I breathe you out again, you shut the door to let the journey begin, time disappearing through a moment in your eye, dreams reoccurring as visions multiply, cause yesterday was the loneliest place, and fear has drawn out these lines on my face...’ and one suspects the loneliness has been created by the fleeing subject of the song’s lamenting intentions. Sorry, I meant lamentable.

Contrast this with the sublime We Can’t Throw You Away that starts the album: harmonies as taut as the rope one wants to put around the writing of the former referenced offering. Second Shadows Falling suggests the beauty will be sustained, this more in the Sting vein so it is a relative claim, but I like that sound when listening to this kind of music. I warm to third All In My Head, sounding a little like Zero 7’s Destiny – indeed, all the bass lines have that grooved-out sound, thanks to producer Kirk Deglorgio - and the vocal of Jinadu is full of clarity in tone and pitch, its multi-dubbing providing the harmonies.

Penultimate track Heaven Is In Your Mind doesn’t achieve a dynamic realisation of the profound literalism of its title, and the simple descending melody isn’t made any greater by those jaunty string arrangements or the attempt at a rousing chorus. I do find it difficult to understand the poles of quality and focus on this album. It does end, naturally, on a sweetly smooth and pretty, relative height with No Rejection, and as I weigh the pros and cons I too will avoid the aural rebuff, but I will be very selective when listening again.