Albums by this artist

The Coast Is Never Clear (2001)

When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Handsome Western States (1997)

Concerts

October 6, 2001
Bowery Ballroom, New York

March 2, 2000
Great American, San Francisco

Beulah

Handsome Western States

---

» WESTERN HOMES | STAFF WRITER

Beulah Handsome Western States Elephant 6, 1997 RiYL: Guided By Voices, Sebadoh, Beach Boys, Elephant 6 bands

Yeah, I know it's Beulah's newer album, When Your Heartstrings Break, that people are talking about. But I just can't bring myself to buy it. Let me tell you why. Handsome Western States is one of my favorite guilty pleasures -- an album terribly recorded, inconsistently performed, and with some lyrics that make Promise Ring singer Davey von Bohlen look like the finest logician of our times.

The record's strength is that the songs are so incandescently catchy that they make all these shortcomings seem like strengths. The tinny trumpets and scratchy violins evoke the image of your junior high orchestra trying to play Pet Sounds. Like mid-period Guided By Voices, the production limitations keep Beulah from becoming too derivative. Heartstrings, which adds studio time and something like 20 musicians, doesn't have the serendipitous magic of Handsome, which was made by three people with an eight-track.

"Maroon Bible" isn't the first song about those free copies of the scriptures people leave in hotel rooms (see the Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon"), but it does add some well-done "ba-ba-das" and a killer meaningless chorus. "I Love John, She Loves Paul" is a poppy breakup song about a timeless music nerd conflict. (Personally, I love George. So there). "Dig The Subatomic Holdout #2" boasts more lo-fi attempted orchestral weirdness and a quality, quality indie-rock title. The tape hiss won't bother you if you have even a passing familiarity with Sebadoh or GBV, and there's enough yearning hooks here to start a noisepop label.

There's way too much similitude here for the album to stand out as a whole, but every one of these tracks is tailor-made for mix tapes or college radio. As a low-budget Fountains Of Wayne, Beulah succeed. A serious reach for Beatles- or Brian Wilson-level pop, however, is not their purpose.

WESTERN HOMES |