"Octopus" The Bees aka A Band of Bees

This is not the first time I've mentioned The Bees here at ThaBombShelter. I talked about their cover of the Os Mutantes classic, "A Minha Menina" back in October. I even chose their song, "No Atmosphere" to celebrate my 24th birthday with. That initial enjoyment of this relatively unknown band from the Isle of Wight has since blossomed into an infatuation bordering on obsession in the intervening months. When I heard the first strains of, "Who Cares What the Question Is" back in January, I was instantly enamored. As I continued listening to "Octopus", their third full-length album, I continued to be blown away. It didn't even take a full listen for me to realize that this album would be an early favorite for Best Album of the Year, and each subsequent listen merely cemented that feeling further. Throughout the ten tracks and 39 minutes, there is nary a weak spot to found. This album stands alone as a monumental achievement for any band, and when placed in the context of the previous two releases, it shows an incredible evolution, not necesarily in sound, but in quality. The smooth croon of "Sunshine Hit Me" and "Free the Bees" is there, but it's been honed to fine edge. Gone is the meandering laziness that plagued the two previous albums, and in it's place is a collection of razorsharp tunes with a shot of nostalgia and Motown era soul.

It's difficult to find a modern analog to the greatness that is "Octopus". The quality is unmatched in anything this humble critic has heard in recent years. This was something I gave a great amount of thought to in the months that I have spent with this album, and after careful deliberation I finally came up with a suitable comparison, so I'm just going to throw it out there. The Bees third album, "Octopus" is as good as The Beatles, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". If you disagree, please let me know, but after hearing the album I doubt you will. It only took The Beatles four years to go from, "Love Me Do" to "With a Little Help from My Friends" and that is something I would not have believed if you had told me 30 minutes ago. I would have thought that amount of change was impossible in such a short amount of time, but there you have it. It's taken The Bees a year longer to make that leap, but they were less prolific in the intervening years (three Bees albums since 2002, about eight Beatles albums between 1963 and 1967). Now, before you get all huffy about the Beatles comparison, let me elaborate a bit. I'm not saying the Bees are as good as the Beatles (although they're awfully damn amazing), what I am saying is that "Octopus" is as strong an album, with as much staying power and songs that are as well written as those on "Sgt. Peppers".

With that said, how does the album sound on it's own? Well, as I mentioned above, the disc has a liberal dose of nostalgia and a heaping spoonful of Motown soul, thus the surprise that The Bees are a bunch of white guys from England.

After the initial pulled guitar/piano riff of album opener, "Who Cares What the Question Is?" the album sidles gently into "Love in the Harbor", a harmonized (and harmonica-ized) stroll through the sunny hills of a coastal town. With a final strum and a slow fade, the best song of the album (and perhaps the year) bursts onto the scene with a Hammond and a bassline. When the horns and drums pop on "Left Foot Stepdown" it's impossible to keep your head still and your feet quiet. There has been many an afternoon in the Cube Farm when inappropriate levels of dancing have occurred due to this infectious song. The appeal of the trumpet has been extensively covered here at ThaBombShelter, so it should come as no surprise that a song with a wicked organ line and a sick horn section should top the list of Best Songs of 2007. After the foot stomping (and head bopping) of "Left Foot Stepdown" we're lead breathless into the dusty bar dance of "Got to Let Go". Horns and Hammond are back, this time with a thick layer of age and vocals muted with age from the other side of a chicken-wire enclosure. One of the best lines of the album is nestled in this track, "When I return, I'll buy you a grand, you can play the piano in your own little band". That line, alone would make this a great track, but when the sax and trumpet break this shit down halfway through, the skronking might just waste your face. The dueling horns come together in an epic battle for the right to rock you; the trumpet edges out the sax in the end, but just barely. After that back-to-back track attack, the band graciously lets us breathe with the effortlessly gentle Temptations-style swing of "Listening Man". We get yet another reprieve in the form of "Stand" before we're dropped into the funk trot of "(This is for the) Better Days". The best lyric of the album (even better than that from "Got to Let Go") is in this excellent tune, "Just a definition, like Jack and the Bean, had he never sown it, then he never would have seen, heights achieved that are over the scale of you and me." The cowbell rocks it's way through the song, making a prominent appearance toward the end, a tocking backbone of any rocking great tune. The album closes a few tracks later (after the barely bilingual jam of "The Ocularist", and the spacey vinyl-popping of "Hot One!") with a disturbingly fun romp in the form of "End of the Street". The song is reminiscent of the rowdy craziness of "Chicken Payback" (from "Free the Bees"), but with less novelty. This improvement lends the song a more long-lasting appeal, it's more fist in the air than animal sounds, a fittingly fun end to a ridiculously fun and amazing album.

The Bees Official Site
The Bees on Wikipedia
The Bees on MySpace
The Beatles UK discography on WikiPedia
Buy "Octopus" from Amazon.co.uk

"Left Foot Stepdown" The Bees
"(This is for the) Better Days" The Bees
"End of the Street" The Bees