BNQT - Volume 1

Rating:

A good album, and a concept worth exploring further.

BNQT is an intriguing project – thought up by Midlake man Eric Pulido to bring together five different songwriters such as Alex Kapranos and Fran Healy and work with them to create an album with each person writing two songs each. Considering how quickly it could have gone wrong, it’s actually come the other end looking and sounding like a concept worth exploring further.

Opening track ‘Restart’ sees a bassline seems that’s come straight out of a Tame Impala track with the vocal melody coming from late-era Beatles, while Kapranos lead ‘Hey Banana’ creeps along before hitting up a relatively large yet subdued chorus. The entire album seems to hinge on a central theme of vague psychedelia but with each track having a distinct identity. Overall, it’s a good album but lacks the coherence that makes a record truly great. Josh Williams