Released: 30th August 2019
Rating: ★★★
After touring their debut ‘No Mind, No Money’, Beach Baby found themselves distinctly lacking the latter. That temporary financial hurdle means that only now, nearly three years on, do they return with ‘Songs From The Limbo Lounge’. Recorded in a converted shed, it is a vastly more expansive and ambitious record than their first, taking many strange diversions through a world of purgatory before ultimately getting lost in a maze of its own making.
Opener ‘Loving Feeling’ sets the tone, its smooth lounge music mood a far cry from the more urgent delivery that formed much of ‘No Mind, No Money’. With its eyebrow arched so high that it’s gonna cause itself an injury, ‘Way Too Meta’ follows swiftly, sitting ‘just’ the right side of actually being a bit too meta thanks to an exquisite vocal delivery that brings Father John Misty to mind. With vividly drawn streams of consciousness rubbing shoulders with chugging indie rock, a schizophrenic nature is present in its style choices as well as its characters.
At times appearing to drift off aimlessly, ‘Songs From The Limbo Lounge’ is much more successful when the focus is kept tight like the super-fun ‘Human Remains’. But, whether it is in character or not, some questionable lyrics present in some of the songs towards the end leave a slightly unsavoury taste in the mouth. Just like the kind of place you stumble across after five drinks too many and regret in the morning, whether this is enough to get Beach Baby out of limbo remains to be seen.
Jamie MacMillan
