‘This inexplicable inability to figure out a cogent sound ultimately renders Beta Love a particularly disorientating and essentially underdone listening experience, not least as Ra Ra Riot have in fact experienced harrowing, though in themselves inspiring things in their seven years of existence. That they should subsequently cobble together an insipid, and indeed emotionless work regressive as this transpires to be is therefore pretty lamentable, really…’
‘Despite bleating of not believing in “second chances” on this, the return of Portland’s Menomena Heavy is as Heavy Does is lifted from their forthcoming fifth, Moms. Expected to wash up on these shores October 8th on Barsuk Records, it’s an astonishingly accomplished and highly accesible reintroduction to some of the finest genre subverters in serving memory as the trio harmonise of hefty branches “hanging from my fucked up family tree.” Thematically concerning familial miscommunication, musically Heavy is as Heavy Does is a cinematic jam redolent of what’d surely have happened had Albarn mucked in on Sébastian Tellier’s Politics LP of ‘04, affecting balladry eventually enshrouded by psych solos and slide guitars evocative of Super Furry Animals’ Love Kraft record of related epoch. As though the welcome return of a reclusive yet genuinely beloved relative, this one.’
