The Beatings – Late Season Kids
I was a bit late to discover The Beatings unfortunately, as my first exposure to the band was their excellent release Holding on to Hand Grenades in ’06. By that point the band was already on their 5th release. However, their noisier post-punk leanings were certainly pleasing to the ear and pretty much every song hit the ground running that easily got my blood pumping. And now, after dispersing and working on various other projects for the last couple years, The Beatings are back with their next record Late Season Kids which is set to be released through Midriff Records on September 15th.
The album starts off in the typical Beatings barnburner fashion with “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained”, but Late Season Kids as it progresses turns out to be a much more scaled back release for the band displaying a refined sound that taps into the members’ pop influences more so than relying on heaping amounts of distortion and their taste for playing at a no holds barred pace. While I do sort of miss the anthem like qualities that their previous album possessed, Late Season Kids succeeds fully on songwriting rather than just reaching back and turning the knob up on the amp to get that sort of energy going. Where in the past you could probably pinpoint The Beatings influences (Mission of Burma, Sugar, etc.) to a handful of bands, Late Season Kids takes a big step forward in breaking out of those chains and being able to maintain their own identity as a band. In the end Late Season Kids may not be the sort of rocking affair that you’ve come to expect from the band, however this is certainly their strongest and most well written album to date and burying these songs in a pile of fuzz would have been a disservice to the work they put into them I feel. Good stuff as always from these Bostonians.
The Beatings – Bury You [MP3]
Be sure to pick up Late Season Kids when it comes out on the 15th if you like what you hear above. It will be available through Midriff Records. Enjoy!
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