There's still much to love elsewhere, though. "Uptown" is slightly incongruous alt.disco which jars against the flow but nevertheless illustrates the band's newfound wanderlust, whilst more familiarly "Urban Guerilla" is a joyous, throwaway garage stomp and even a highly unlikely cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Over and Over" stays on the right side of dignified.
In a strange way, that Beautiful Future is undeniably a pop record isn't the most interesting thing about it. It's the fact that it's so unlikely to win the band any fresh converts, so by logic is aimed squarely between the eyes of their existing fanbase. How this group of presumably thirty-something, slightly paunchy and follically challenged men will react to some of the songs being recorded in ABBA's old studio is anyone's guess. From the band's point of view, though, its boldness is refreshing, the brushstrokes made not as a result of a label suggestion that they try to reach a new demographic, but because it's simply the temporary road which they collectively want to take. For once it seems Gillespie and Co. are going towards the light. Whether they get there before the devil starts calling the tune again is anyone's guess.
Article comments