Brakes
The Beatific Visions reviews Page 1

aframe.wordpress.com Best of 2006: These guys really know how to pile drive their audience in to the ground with pure, no holds, twangy punk rock. Hold Me In The River starts the album off on the most appropriate first impression for Brakes cherry poppers. The rest of the album has a steady flow that chaperones you through the crunching chords, quirky humor, and heartfelt lyrics.
blog.myspace.com/larkette I have liked the Brakes since I heard Ring a Ding Ding from the 2005 album Give Blood. Both this and the new single are like heroin to me; as soon as I hear them I immediately want another fix. The new song Hold Me In The River is by far the stand out track of the album. With it's thrashy repetitive hook and quirky lyric - "They say Eamon tell us how to keep our garden growing, I say try lying on the grass thinking of Scarlett Johannsen", it's a dance floor stormer. It may become my party piece.

Next comes the urgent Margarita, with its Pixies bass line. Then we change track with the fearful country rock of If I Should Die Tonight. "Got a little stoned and I got a little paranoid, got into unwinding this Mortal Coil". We are introduced to the mellow Brakes with the pretty Mobile Communication. At times the singer's voice is reminiscent of the Cramps' Lux Interior. In Spring Chicken they are in league with the B52s. You could see people inventing their own dance like the Time Warp to this.

The Beatles Michelle is reprised in the graceful track Isabel. With Beatific Visions, it's Death Cab for Cutie with a bit of the Thrills and Crowded House thrown in. In the frenetic Porcupine or Pineapple, we've gone from Jekyll to Hyde again. "Who won the war was it worth fighting for?" They rant in unison like Stump - remember them? Cease and Desist - starts off like Last Train to Clarkesville and gets progressively heavier. With On Your Side we're back to country rock again and with No Return it could be Ben Gibbard's voice that you are listening to.
Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth Best Albums Of 2006: Last year, Brakes released Give Blood, an album I've ranted about here before for its life-affirming, wild, careening twists and turns between punk and folk and country and a little more punk for good measure. The Beatific Visions isn't a far sonic step from its predecessor. Perhaps the lines between the "rock" songs and the "quiet" songs are a little more distinct on this one, but overall it's a seamless montage of punk, country, and bits of Eno-esque cleverness, and its focus is a little more direct on two subjects: war and love.

We are, if you haven't noticed, in the middle of a nasty, unjustifiable war, and Brakes are more than happy to go after it, directly, in a punky blast called "Porcupine or Pineapple?" and not-quite-as-directly when attacking the torture of detainees and the UK's 28-day-without-charge anti-terrorism laws in "Hold Me In the River." There's another piece of brilliance called "Cease and Desist" that opens with the line: "God came down and said, I'm fucking bored. So he took a shot of whiskey and shuffled his cards again". Really, how can you lose with that opener?

But, as the band makes clear on its website, there's always time for love amidst the madness, and the love songs are the same wry, slightly sad, wistful slices of brilliance that shone on Give Blood. Save for one song, everything is *really* short. The first album clocked in at less than 30 minutes, and so does this one. And that's fine with me. Here's to you, Brakes; you have successfully avoided the sophomore slump and hit the ground running with album number two.

Oh, and for what it's worth, this is import-only for now, but it has a North American release date coming up in '07. Be the coolest kid on your block and jump on this the day it comes out. Now for a North American tour?
sixsquare.com/blog/keefe Brakes produce a worthy follow-up to last year's excellent bolt of whoop-hollerin' indie rock fun, Give Blood. Beatific Visions shows a band maturing without losing their ability to cut loose and follow their instincts. A cowpunk ditty like Spring Chicken is totally silly, yet indispensable. Unlike the first record, this disc doesn't feature any songs less than one minute in length, although the awesome, hooting and hollering, goofball anti-war metaphor Porcupine Or Pineapple is only 64 seconds. It features one of my favorite exclamations of the year: "Spiky! Spiky!"

Brakes are quite versatile, though. They don't just do punk-pop, as evidenced by the slow and sweetly twangy Mobile Communication, the hushed acoustic ballad Isabel, and the spacey, organ-washed album closer No Return. In between these extremes are the catchy country of If I Should Die Tonight and the breezy indie pop of the title track. In all these moods, Brakes excel at writing catchy songs, played skillfully, and made distinctive by Hamilton's versatile voice, with his patented yelps and, on the slow tunes, a pretty and breathy tenor.

With most bands, a sophomore album released one year after a great debut leads to diminished returns. No so with Brakes' very good Beatific Visions.
finestkiss.wordpress.com The Best Long Players of 2006: Leave it to a UK band to put out the best war protest record of the year. Brakes record #2 surpasses their first by being a bit more refined, but still spewing loads of vitriol. The music is still a combination of punk, country and rock, but everything seems a bit more fleshed out this time. With the first lines of the record, "I woke up late and found my liberty lost, it had been written down in lore as a security cost", you can tell that Eamon Hamilton is still good and mad at the U.S. government. He uses his anger as a muse throughout Beatific Visions to excellent effect. If you're not mad as hell about the Bush administration and their bogus war, you will be after listing to the Brakes.
blog.myspace.com/ianc22 Best Of 2006: Following up last years 'Give Blood' record, 'The Beatific Visions' proved to be a slightly more focused, yet none the less rocking affair - clocking in at just under 30 minutes of superbly chaotic country punk to keep everyone suitably entertained with shouts of 'SPIKEY SPIKEY' for a good while to come.
100b.blogspot.com Album Of The Month: Brakes? They just blow me away with their originality. They don't fit tidily into any one genre so a clever comparison to other bands just won't work here - which is a big part of what makes them so great. Their influences? Equal parts Johnny Cash and The Clash, maybe, but who knows what else went into the mix to make them sound the way they do.

They're political without ever telling us what we should think. They write nonsense lyrics ("Spiky, Spiky - Youch!") but manage to say more about the state of the world than nearly anyone else recording music right now ("Who won the war? What the fuck was it for?"). They sing sweet country songs about beautiful women and lost love. All this and much, much more in under 30 minutes. It's bound to be high up on 100b's end of the year lists - as well as most others', I'm sure - and is more than worthy of Album Of The Month.
birmingham101.com An album that builds on Give Blood's ramshackle punky guitar pop and political conscience songs. Both strands are jubilantly in evidence on the one minute live favourite blast of Iraq themed Porcupine Or Pineapple and the equally hand grenade staccato romp that is Margarita.

But they ring the musical changes too, On Your Side a country twangy voiced bounce that, alongside the honky tonk piano plinking If I Should Die Tonight and pedal steel keening on Mobile Communication reminds you the album was recorded in Nashville, Isabel a simple acoustic tender ballad and play out track No Return a strings enhanced slice of Hovis autumn pop.

The opening guitar chug Hold Me In The River, a song that references Scarlett Johansson, harks back to the debut album's Roxy Music gone folk hints but Cease and Desist suggests they've dug out the Monkees albums too, borrowing the intro and middle eight from Pleasant Valley Sunday to go with the Virginia Plain keyboard riff. And, on top of all that, they've come up with their own indie disco hoedown dance too, The Spring Chicken.
durham21.co.uk Some of the songs have a real American edge to them, despite all four members coming from sunny Brighton. 'If I Should Die Tonight', for instance, is as country as the album gets and although people have already started being rude about it, I'd like to stick up for it. The country style saves the song from falling into the trap of over-sentiment that the lyrics could be seen to encourage... Brakes produce a song of pure sincerity.

Similarly, 'Porcupine or Pineapple?' takes on a role of a short political rant that characterised some of the shorter tracks of their first album, Give Blood... It's original, even when compared to the short rants of the first album, and as the heaviest of all songs in the album, it is granted a rawness and passion that you wouldn't expect from listening to some of the quieter songs of the album.

Beatific Visions is full of these sorts of nice, new ideas. Another example is the title track, in which Brakes somehow manage to transform a guitar riff (reminiscient of the opening of Nirvana's 'Smells like Teen Spirit') into the basis of a chilled out groovy number. And in 'Spring Chicken', early 1950's rock 'n' roll meets 21st century rock in a creative blend of styles. Brakes seem to be able to accommodate for all sorts of feelings and moods.
Control Yourself It becomes quite clear very early on that each song has its own individual, very unique personality - if you imagine the songs on this album as a family all sitting around the dinner table at Christmas then you're not too far off: Mobile Communication, with its delicate vocals and ear pleasing melodies, would be your caring mother who, worrying too much whether everyone is happy and has enough on their plate, fails to enjoy the meal herself. Similarly, Porcupine or Pineapple? would be your mad old granddad that you desperately try to ignore as he tries to tell everyone what's wrong with the world today with all the subtlety of a 47-year-old fascist cab driver. Opposite him sits Isabel your Nan who for the last ten years has been saying that this is probably her last Christmas so you better make the most of her.

At the other end of the table recently released single Hold Me In The River enters the room like your obnoxious older brother having just retuned home from one of those Red Brick universities where he is studying politics. He immediately proceeds to argue with his little sister, who has brought her boyfriend around in the shape of If I Should Die Tonight. Whilst all of this goes on around you, you are probably Spring Chicken wishing that everyone would just finish up their dinner that bit quicker so you can finally be excused from the table because, quite frankly, you have somewhere better to be.

Until the current five-minute fad that is new rave fizzles out it is perhaps all too easy to overlook the wealth of originality and beauty contained within this record. For all of its sleek and beautiful craftsmanship The Beatific Visions should be cherished, your love for it enhanced by its many insane moments of illogical nonsense.
Irish Times
Vanguard Online The opening track, Hold Me In The River is no disappointment. It's got the beat and a thick guitar fronting that grabbed hold of my ears right away... Margarita continues this sound, then If I Should Die Tonight throws a curve ball by leaping feet-first into... a country ballad. Clever. And a mighty fine tune it is too.

Mobile Communication is in the recent Ryan Adams "Am I rock, country or MOR?" genre, then Spring Chicken (a completely ludicrous but brilliant track) appears like having The Monster Mash in the middle of a Dylan album. Although Porcupine or Pineapple does a good job of keeping it company, with inspired lyrics like: "Porcupine or Pineapple / Spiky Spiky!"

Beatific Visions could easily be a single and needs at least five listens to fully appreciate, with all of the musical layering and imagery going on, while Cease And Desist is rock to head bang to. It's a powerful and varied 28 minutes, and it'll leave you exhausted but stimulated. It's so varied I challenge anyone to dislike every song.

A genuinely exciting discovery.
Buzzsaw Haircut As far as changes to the actual sound of the Brakes, that dirty little "M" word comes to mind... maturity!

Hold Me in the River the album's leadoff single, is impressively fun, considering it's about getting your ass kicked. Porcupine or Pineapple has the same kind of spastic freak-out sound of early Thunderbirds Are Now! albums. The song maintains a hysterical juxtaposition between Hamilton's nonsensical rants and newfound knack for intelligent political commentary. The Brakes have also brought their A-game to the folk-country tunes on the album with songs that echo The Band or Tom Petty's country side.

The real surprise on Beatific Visions comes in the form of the final track No Return. The ominous keyboard hum in the background swirls around Hamilton's vocals as he tells the tale of a lonely search in a record store. As the gorgeous strings slide in, No Return morphs into one of the saddest love song of the year. Hamilton lamenting that "the pain of being together is more than being apart" is almost tear-inducing. With No Return, the Brakes have marked their most vulnerable moment yet. Placing it as the album's closer serves as an ingenious (and maddening) device, making it impossible for the listener to stop wondering what's coming next.
thebellyaches.blogspot.com Their latest album, Beatific Visions, is slightly refined but still manically varied. The album lasts 28 minutes. The first two tracks are punchy rock'n'roll, the next two have country leanings. Spring Chicken is next, it's like Chicken Payback done by Americans. Isabel is a quiet, delicate homage strummed out on the acoustic guitar, it only lasts 206 seconds before we're back to more pop music. Following the title track is the nonsensical debate over which is the spikiest: Porcupine or Pineapple. It's another fine album.
Pitchfork On The Beatific Visions, they're more like the Pixies than ever before, having made a more "serious" album than their debut, Give Blood, while retaining their off-kilter aura.

The Beatific Visions is dominated by direly catchy and fully fleshed-out songs that pop like punk, lilt like country, mutter politics, and reek of the garage: "Hold Me in the River" crashes along on an ornery, feel-good choogle; the twangy licks on "On Your Side" are so slippery that it sounds like guitarist Thomas White had chicken grease on his fingers. These are balanced out with tender ballads that don't sacrifice Brakes' dark, ridiculous wit, like the baggy trail-song "If I Should Die Tonight" ("tell her that I love her," Hamilton croons with fleeting sweetness, "or she might never know,"), the light-as-the-Shins ballad "Isabel", and standout track "No Return", a serene, blossoming hum that brings the album to a moving close.

Brakes put their unique spin on another hypermodern trend, the mobile-communications-technology song. "Mobile communications let me down again," Hamilton sings to a bad connection on this melting slow-burner. Brakes straddle the silly-serious fault line without slipping; Hamilton's more refined vocal style-- rambunctious, squalling, charismatic and tuneful-- is a terrific conduit for such vibrantly contrasting content. If the pre-apocalyptic fear is omnipresent, so is the reckless abandon. The Beatific Visions is the shimmy at the end of the world, wide-eyed and wild as it should be.
youngscot.org Sometimes you can just tell from even the first few notes of the first song that an album is going to be great. I never really got in to the first Brakes album, but this one is really top stuff. Reminding me a little of kooky Swedish indie popsters The Wannadies, they make musically perfect little pop songs and then throw crazy lyrics over the top.

Most of the songs are a nice and compact two minutes long, and the album clocks in at under half an hour - short but sweet, eh? The highlight, we reckon, is a lovely folky little number called On Your Side, that just about manages to get the vocals and the music spot on at the same time. And following it, the last track is five minutes long - an epic by Brakes standards - and really rather gorgeous and delicate.
thebeatsurrender.co.uk ...more than a worthy follow up... a fun, often punky in spirit, album that has some very good lyrics throughout it. Highlights for me are the title track and opener Hold Me In The River.
rockfeedback.com Having recorded the bulk of the album in Tennessee there's a clear country vibe to the whole thing, but throughout it's been cross pollinated with other genres such as punk, indie and electro meaning there's no easy pigeonhole for this piece, rather it's the sum of its components compiled to form a whole new element entirely. I can picture Flogging Molly fans spinning this and pogo jumping around while their country lovin' next door neighbours turn down the Kenny Rogers and enjoy a mutual appreciation of an album that's doing for these respected genres what Roxy Music did for Glam-rock way back when.

There's idyllic simplicity to this album to contrast its layers of shagging and abusive thrash-guitars and filthy vocals, and in no place is this clearer than Mobile Communication, a mid album song that helps put the grandeur of Beatific Visions into view with exposed yet orderly and proficient vocals and Jackson Browne-esk instrumentations.

Peel back the consortium of bewildering layers even more and you come across Isabel, an homage to the bands simplistic beginnings, but this plunges swiftly into the albums title track and leading assemblage, Beatific Visions. With a resonance of San Francisco circa 1967 melted into an OK Go anthem, there's a Beck sense of "I don't give a shit what's cool" that inevitably turns into one of the crispest moments and mischievously surreal instants of the experience, and I say experience as unlike a lot of albums that could blend into your carpet, this is an experience.

It may not always be in-your-face muscle but the occasion comes from the shear scope and assortment that it's managed to touch from the Beatles swinging psychedelic, almost Magic Numbers guitar trouncing, Porcupine Or Pineapple to the late Stranglers embodied Cease and Desist. Even some Ryan Adams familiarities crop up in tunes such as On Your Side and some Oberst injected wonder in No Return, but like all good albums there's more to entertain and compel after all the comparisons have been made.
music-news.com This album begins with a very catchy tune that immediately has you tapping your feet (Hold Me In The River) It is somewhat of a surprise when the lyrics come in to reveal a very punk influenced singer. The punk theme is continued into the second track with edgy lyrics accompanying toe-tapping pop instruments (Margarita)

After these initial flirtations with both the Sex Pistols and the more recent Subways, the album morphs into more general pop, with several tracks that would not sound out of place on either a Byrds album or some of the better Monkees tracks. For me, this is a good thing, it makes the album very accessible to all types of listeners.

Perhaps aware that they have drifted into pop for too long, the edgy vocals return for track 5 (Spring Chicken) albeit popular in their actual content, and the pop chord structure still remains. Track 6 is a simple, yet touching, lament to Isabel which has a memorable melody and you genuinely do share the feelings of the singer. It is a short track, yet very effective and all the better for it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, from a band that seems keen to play on change throughout this record, track 7 sees us move into that teen American genre, immediately conjuring images of proms and a coming of age, and very enjoyable (Beatific Visions)

Track 8 is then undoubtedly an answer to the previous track's easy and playful melody, with a fast beat accompanied by lyrics that border on plain shouting (Porcupine Or Pineapple) This type of track is not normally my cup of tea but, as a direct contrast to the previous one, and being a mere minute in length, it very much works contextually.

The penultimate track on the album happens to be my favourite and sees a return to the jangly pop and has both a catchy melody and chorus (On Your Side) The last track, at almost five minutes, is the longest on the album by some distance, and is beautiful. Very melodic music and a haunting lyric that works. At the beginning of the track there is an immediate expectation that it will develop into something else, but it doesn't. For once, this is a good thing, allowing the song to maintain a presence that really does work (No Return)

This is a great album that proves that you can drift in and out of genres and still create an excellent piece of music. It also has a number of tracks that would hold their own as single releases, whilst maintaining an impressive overall structure. Those of you who like new bands, like the previously mentioned Subways, yet still enjoy the guitar led pop of the mid to late sixties, will find this album very pleasing on the ear.
musicinbelgium.net
The Irish Times ...the band return as something more than a side project, frontman Eamon Hamilton having quit his day job with British Sea Power. That could explain the extra attention afforded to all 28 minutes of The Beatific Visions, an album that still accelerates through the chinks and chicanes of punk, but which also calms down long enough to draft in soft wisps of slide guitar (Mobile Communication), bittersweet acoustic ballads (Isabel) and giddy bursts of retro-pop (Beatific Visions)
new-noise.net ...instead of the coke-fuelled pomposity that usually comes with so-called supergroups; Brakes have something else: Balls.

Give Blood, Brakes' debut album of 2005, reinstored faith in good old fashioned rock 'n' roll in that the whiff of bullshit that pervades most modern day indie rock records was absent. The Beatific Visions, their follow-up album, clocks in at 28 minutes, a whole minute shorter than Give Blood. The sound has also changed, to some extent.

Recorded in a fortnight in Nashville, Tennessee (it's not hard to picture Brakes sitting on porches in the afternoon swigging whiskey) as a result, a few of the tracks - If I Should Die Tonight and On Your Side in particular - have a distinctly country feel. This album does indeed show another side to these crazed beatniks, No Return, the last and best track on the album is a haunting little song about "browsing through the record section of a shop in Birmingham". It has sparse guitar, no drums and a string section, of all things.

However, these tracks are in the minority and the brief guitar-driven lunacy that formed the backbone of their first album is fully present in the should-be singles of The Beatific Visions: Hold Me In The River, Cease & Desist and the psychotic political nonsense track Porcupine Or Pineapple - just a minute or so of madness before it's all over.

In days of wanky, whiney emo bands and derivative indie pop bands, Brakes are... well, real. "They're all playing follow the leader" sings Eamon. Brakes aren't. Thank fuck.

morningstaronline.co.uk In the space of about half an hour, Brakes have managed to pack in a diverse range of attractive and likable melodies by fusing an interesting mix of country, punk and alternative rock. Strangely, it works.

From the onset, the band grabs their audience's attention with the jovial Hold Me in the River, which introduces sharp-edged guitar riffs. The songs that follow jump from punk pop, country folk and soft rock, but all are tightly constructed, with no instrument sounding out of place.

The finale of the album No Return is perhaps the tenderest and most beautifully arranged of the lot. It's a great last track, which is likely to bring listeners down after the energy-packed first half of the album.

The Beatific Visions is a great second album for Brakes, with both sweet and sour melodies that are complimented by Eamon Hamilton's quirky vocals, but it is likely to require a few listens before their talent is fully appreciated.

impactnottingham.com The lovechild of British Sea Power and Electric Soft Parade, The Brakes' sophomore effort The Beatific Visions sounds less like a spin-off, and more like a Proper Band (here's hoping, Raconteurs) There's hammy organ and acoustic nonsense on the twist-friendly Spring Chicken, and an ode to lost love, and perhaps lost mobile signal, in Mobile Communication. Still, the very band that brought you the 6 second sonnet to grammar with Comma Comma Full Stop hasn't lost its silly side: see the anti-war, thrash-pop of Porcupine or Pineapple? This time around, they're riding without Brakes, and it's a wheelie of a record.
thedownloader.co.uk Revelling in a glorious debt to spunky, unashamed art pop, Brakes return to the pop fray is one that is welcomed with out-stretched arms. Having left behind the more mainstream-friendly endeavours of his previous (and rather lovely) band British Sea Power, Eamon Hamilton captains this rabble of Brighton-based musos (The ESP White brothers help make up the band) through the wild blue yonder of a 2nd albums worth of short, sharp art-house pop.

From its outset The Beatific Visions stands as a triumphant record. Intentionally out of step with current (mostly odious) musical trends, it joyously embraces the staples of pure power pop before roughing them up with some delicious lo-fi grit and buzz.

Highlights are plentiful and come thick and fast. Opener Hold Me In The River is a rumbling 2 minute throb of Clap Your Hands theatrics and mischievous guitar licks, whilst the likes of Margarita (a gnawing slice of infectious faux-punk) Isabel (warm, heartfelt acoustica) and - standout track - Spring Chicken (a ready made party classic along the same lines as All Night Disco Party) further endorse Brakes credentials as one of the most essential bands on the British mainland.
epigram.org.uk Literate country-punkers Brakes are back with their second album Beatific Visions, a definite improvement on their last, Give Blood. With frontman Eamon having left BSP to focus on Brakes, the album is clearly the result of a combined effort within the band to produce a record diverse in style and, more importantly, lyrical content.

Whilst preserving their quirky, deliriously entertaining manner through songs like 'Spring Chicken', the band also successfully introduce a tender sentimental side, as displayed in the beautifully understated 'Isabel' or the twee, poptastic 'Beatific Visions'.
last.fm/user/missionverdana The Beatific Visions is the second release from Brighton's finest, Brakes. The record is well put together, but unfortunately clocks in at only half an hour long. The first track taken off the album as a single, Hold Me In The River, opens the album well, and sets the standard for the rest of the record. Catchy, inviting, and just plain bizarre, this album has a good variety of styles, in keeping with the genre. Songs to make you dance, songs to make you cry, and not forgetting the crazy Porcupine Or Pineapple, a song that'll just make you utterly confused. This particular track happens to be a B-side of the second version of the All Night Disco Party single (a track from the previous album), and features Eamon Hamilton (vocals and guitar) yelling about a war between, what else? A porcupine and a pineapple. Other highlights include If I Should Die Tonight, which reminded me of country music (not to worry though, in a good way) and Cease And Desist.
Exeter Uni paper: Part 1 - Part 2
soundsxp.com Like the first album, Give Blood, it's less than 30 minutes long and not a second is wasted. It combines styles and moods from frantic punk-pop to thoughtful alt.country. It was recorded at the House of David on Nashville's Music Row and that's studio owner David Briggs - former sideman of Elvis Presley - laying down the tinkling piano on If I Should Die Tonight, the first time in three years that he was moved to appear on record. But the Southern location hasn't skewed the balance: there are raw love songs like Isabel and the jangly Beatific Visions sat alongside more raucous tales like the angular, made-for-moshing Porcupine or Pineapple? (Spiky! Spiky!) and the 60s R&B barnstormer meets insane indie blast of Spring Chicken.

When it's not intensely personal, the album is furiously political, fuelled by a righteous anger at the state of the world. Hold Me in the River is two minutes of punk-pop genius, like Pixies at their most combustible, blasting the War on Terror with the lines "I woke up late and found my liberty lost/ it had been written down in law as a security cost". You won't hear a better wake up call - politically or literally - this year. Porcupine or Pineapple? screams "who won the war/ was it worth fighting for?" while Cease and Desist paints a vision of the world where God and Satan are playing cards for control of creation (God loses). The last song then takes Brakes in a fascinating new direction: No Return is elegant and eerie glitch-pop with faintly buzzing keyboards and a sad, crepuscular feel: "the pain of being together is more than being apart".

When Give Blood was released, the members of Brakes were seen as a supergroup, moonlighting from their day jobs. Now that Brakes is their first priority, they've coalesced brilliantly as a band and sound fantastic, and they wear that supergroup tag more comfortably - this is one of the best, if not the best, albums you'll hear all year.
national-student.co.uk The Beatific Visions sees Brakes maturing their sound and ideas into a more coherent and solid work. The subject matter is in a similar vein to superb debut Give Blood, but it is more focused and serious in its condemnation of global events and society, if infused with Brakes' own unique tongue-in-cheek, quirky humour. Opener Hold Me In The River begins, "I woke up late, to find my liberty lost, and have it written down in law as a security cost." The Beatific Visions is crammed full of these brilliantly observant and poignant lines drawing immense meaning from often scatter-brain and seemingly insane ramblings.

No Return is a diatribe against religious fervour, whilst Margarita works finely as a Bulgakov influenced observation on geopolitics. Coupled with the bands off-kilter ballsy fusion of country, indie, rock and punk these messages become highly accessible and part of foot-stomping fun. This is best illustrated on the frantically wonderful Porcupine or Pineapple? which may just be the quirkiest and most bizarre anti-war tune ever.

But whilst taking the energetic template of their debut Brakes have advanced into new realms of sound, further developing on their more tender moments. Isabel is Nick Drake-esque acoustic loveliness and Beatific Visions is the bands take on summery West Coast pop. All ideas are startlingly condensed into under four minutes (except for the band's step into realms of the epic, on the shimmering end track No Return)

Gone are the novel ten-second tracks as Brakes lay out their manifesto for a band that can only get better. The Beatific Visions, shows a new side to a band that should in all fairness be one of the most revered guitar bands in the land.
atomicduster.com N: An album whose "blink and you'll miss it" 28 minutes length is obviously deceptive and bolstered by Brakes' ability of writing quirky but strong content.

T: My CD player is terrified of Brakes. I say this because it seems to take an absolute hammering whenever a new album comes out. I was worried they might not be able to come close to matching "Give Blood" but hey, they pretty much have. And how. This time around, I've been astonished by the broad musical stylings throughout. There's the relentless pop-rock of latest single "Hold Me In The River" and "Margarita", the country jangle of "If I Should Die Tonight", the out and out party anthem that is "Spring Chicken", a remarkably touching folk song in the shape of "Isabel", the thumping punk of "Porcupine Or Pineapple", which includes the best anti-war lyric ever - "Who won the war? What the fuck was it for?" and one of the most spine tingling album finales you're ever likely to hear in "No Return". This late in the year, I didn't think anything would even come close to rivalling Being 747's "Health & Safety" as Album of the Year. This does. Absolutely stunning. 10/10
artrocker.com (different to the scan above) With 'The Beatific Visions' Brakes can be said to have moved from a band that shakes their audience to one that genuinely stirs them. Having recorded this in Nashville, it has that classic Country radio sound that is full and deep, opening with 'Hold Me In The River' the guitar riffs come in fast and furious, Eamon still willing to shout about the stupidity of war whilst simultaneously sounding like a banshee. Thank fuck some people still aren't afraid to criticize, and speak out.

The whole album feels like a massive step up, 'Spring Chicken' and 'Porcupine Or Pineapple?' could provide surprise indie dance floor smashes, moving from mere statement/novelty to self contained hedonistic song. There's also more personal outpourings here, 'Mobile Communication' and 'Beatific Visions' are painfully good indie pop ballads, filled with soul they seduce instantly and aren't afraid to be personal in their expression, no longer hidden behind humour or subliminal song length.

This album is a schizophrenic spasm of insanity. It does exactly what it wants to when it wants to, and whilst it must have been a nightmare to arrange the track order, they've nailed it and as the year comes to a close we've evidently found our album of the year. Innovative and self assured, this is a masterpiece that proves second albums don't have to be more of the same, or merely lowest common denominator shit, for the band to survive.
indigoflow.co.uk For their second album Brighton's Brakes seconded to Nashville and let the rich history of country music flow through them. Though the sound is largely a mix of The Pixies, The Dead Kennedys and The Clash, the country influence is apparent across the eleven tracks and a few country songs do make it into the mix.

The band fire through the album's eleven tracks with the giddy energy of a band who love what they're doing, and it's hard not to have some of that enthusiasm run off on you. Eamon Hamilton's vocals take a little while to get used (think Black Francis' weirder moments almost all the time) but once you do (and you will) you'll let them take you anywhere.
makenoiseanddance.co.uk Opening track and first single Hold Me In The River feels like the most natural progression from Give Blood - it makes the same bold pop punk tinged statement as the instantly loveable Ring A Ding Ding.

Most of the tracks may make no sense to even the most illogical of people, but there's something about the energetic drumming, jangly guitars and gravely vocals that is so fucking exciting they produce that slightly sick feeling in your stomach that rarely happens when you hear music after you reach twenty. It's the effect that has people cheering for songs of six seconds long. Sadly the shortest offering on this release is the schizophrenic Porcupine or Pineapple? at an extensive one minute and four seconds. Still despite lacking the immediate punch of Cheney or Comma Comma Comma Full Stop, Eamon's cries of "Who won the war, what the fuck was it for?" have a real sense of exasperation, confusion and annoyance. Cease and Desist continues the theme and probably encapsulates Give Blood's slightly shambolic energy best on this second offering.

As with Give Blood though, there's also a beautiful, delicate side to the band's spiky political numbers. If I Should Die Tonight is a touching country tinged love song that is fragile yet ballsy and gritty. Mobile Communication sits somewhere between Primal Scream's All Fall Down and Science Fiction Double Feature complete with melancholy guitars and a sweeping string section. The Beatific Visions shows a clear progression for the band and despite the obvious injection of cash and added professionalism, the essential elements that make Brakes so bloody great are there in droves.
altnation.com Rocking, compact and slightly left field, Brakes are a slight breath of fresh air from the usual British rock bands. The Beatific Visions is a progression from the last album, offering up much stronger material, and at just twenty eight minutes it is a crunchy short blast of varied fun. Brakes play anything from howling punk, shiny new wave pop to straight up dustbowl country, reminding listeners of the great lost Crocketts but alas, nowhere near as unhinged.

The Kinks, the Pixies and Orange Juice all get a look in, with Eamon Hamilton's vocals adapting well to the different moods and sounds, especially sounding Dylan-esque on the twanging If I Should Die Tonight and sounding just rabid on Porcupine or Pineapple.

With delicate backing when its needed and fiery thrusts of sound when it ain't, Beatific Visions is a classy little record, worth checking out for fans of acts like Clinic or the Pixies.
theboltonnews.co.uk The Beatific Visions veers all over the unbeaten track of an indie band keen on punky shouting and country twang, a little tighter than their debut, Give Blood, which was alluringly all over the place. And aside from the dubious straight-country jaunt If I Should Die Tonight, The Beatific Visions delivers magnificently.

There's high-octane political ranting on Porcupine Or Pineapple?, utter insanity on Spring Chicken, gentler highs with album-closer No Return and astonishing accomplishment on Mobile Communication. Only two tracks exceed three minutes, so it's all over in an exhilarating flash.

The Beatific Visions: saintly.
musicomh.com Songwriting is clearly a pleasure for them, with quirky lyrics, decent tunes and no-frills production. Between tracks it's difficult to remember you're listening to the same band. When a song like Porcupine & Pineapple? explodes from the speakers, spitting anti-war venom before exiting stage left in just 63 seconds, punk sensibilities are to the fore. Contrast that with the epic, lovelorn No Return, a string-drenched song that tugs at the heartstrings, pondering whether to leave or stay.

There's a quaintness about much of the Brakes songwriting, occasionally leaning towards Belle & Sebastian. Recording the album in Nashville seems to have lent the album an open-air feel. Margarita has an easy going country charm, while Mobile Communication has a gentle resignation. That damned reception's gone again...

Ties to the homeland remain, with endearingly English lyrics that speak in Hold Me In The River of "follow my leader" and "skip to the lou", while the bonkers Spring Chicken tries its luck with a few do-ci-dos.

Vocalist Eamon Hamilton seems to be a man of several personas, and a tender love moment on Isabel should never be taken for granted, as he'll be more than ready to punch out a spiky guitar riff and strangled yelp of a vocal in the next minute. His song structures are pleasingly random and err on the brief side, the whole album over in just under half an hour. As No Return unwinds; however, you get the sense the band is reveling in the timelessness of it all, as if they know there's no time limit. It complements the short, frenetic bursts extremely well.

The album is an intriguing mixture of moods and styles, a piece of work that despite its brevity has to be lived for a good many listens. Then the overall structure becomes clearer, a kind of mini-concept record that will amuse, puzzle, uplift and even irritate in equal measure, displaying a refreshing alternative to conventional ideas.
Preston SU Paper -- Latest 7 Magazine
blog.myspace.com/robertwinckworth Well as if I didn't know already, the Brakes LP is excellent. No longer merely a side project but a full on committed band, their second LP bristles with confidence. Less grumpy than their debut, no Victor Meldrew type rants about people talking at gigs or cretins chatting about their own music. That's not to say that the humour has gone. 'Spring Chicken' and 'Porcupine or Pineapple' are just two examples that the wit is still there. No five second interludes decrying Cheney as a dick this time round, the shortest songs here are about 2 minutes long. Epics by their standards. Personal favourites are 'If I Should Die Tonight' and 'Beatific Visions', though the whole album really is a peach and I'm looking forward to seeing them again.
tohellwith.co.uk Cyndi Lauper was wrong. Boys just wanna have fun, and that seems to be Brakes' mot. Fuck trends, fuck the man, fuck it all, just have fun and love what you do. And its obvious the Brakes love every bouncy, plinky-plonky, twangy-bangy, shouty-thrashy minute of this album. All 34 of them.

When Brakes released their first album, fans and experts alike were unsure of their intentions. Was it a one off, was it a joke, was it a vanity project? Well with their follow up 'The Beatific Visions' they prove that the answer to all the above was a resounding 'no'. Ok, there is a sense of stupidity on the absurd 'Spring Chicken' and 'Porcupine or Pineapple' and still none of the 11 tracks bother the 3 minute mark, but there seems to be a little more thought behind it this time. Songs such as 'Mobile Communication' and the acoustic lament of 'Isabel' show a more restained, even serious side to the group. The fact that the album was recorded in Nashville, is a telling one, as the title track, amongst others, show a definate American taste.
Uncut Magazine (3 stars) Former British Sea Power man's sophomore effort. Brakes are a side-project that has successfully become the main event. Built around Eamon Hamilton, formerly of British Sea Power, the band's Ring A Ding Ding single last year showed the band forging an unexpected link between Roxy Music and Graham Coxon, a policy continued here. Stylistic shifts abound - the great Mobile Communication recalls Belle & Sebastian - but this is an album chiefly memorable for its personality. Witty like Loudon Wainwright, doleful like Jonathan Richman, Hamilton emerges as a distinct presence throughout, and it's this you warm to.
playlouder.com With 'Beatific Visions', Eamon is and still as insane as you'd hope, still obsessed with world politics - yet Brakes have certainly progressed. 'Porcupine Or Pineapple' is a two minute blast of escalating guitars and ridiculous lyrics ("Porcupine or pineapple?/ Spiky spiky/Youch!") contrasted with the pertinent question that might finally get asked in Parliament: "who won the war / was it worth fighting for?"

Brakes prove that you can make valid observations on the state of the world without on one hand languishing in the obscurity of the underground, or being a blandishment spouting, puffed up megastar. They never falter: Brakes pass judgement without being sniffy and manage to make you boogie, certainly a difficult task to pull off well.

Yet the real beauty at the heart of these visions is in the song writing. 'Beatific Visions' is the most heartfelt piece of indie-pop written this year, with lines like "You want to show her that existence exists / so you take her to the places that the tourists never go" and "I don't know what it is she's got / But it's got me" making the heart crumble. 'Spring Chicken' employs Eamon's knack for a witty turn of phrase for a country hoe down meets indie disco, while 'On Your Side' glows with radio friendly harmonies and the heartfelt invocations of Nashville. All in all, Brakes are a band becoming ever smarter, meaner and a whole lot funkier - you'd have to be spiritually blind not to realise that 'Beatific Visions' is one of the finest albums of the year.
the-mag.me.uk Just like anything else that brings pleasure, music is often listened to in order to separate one's self from reality; to get away from the rigmarole of daily working life. If that's your bag, then look no further than Brakes. It must be great being vocalist Eamon Hamilton, and here's why. Songs like "Spring Chicken" and "Porcupine or Pineapple?" are just plain mental; you can't not have fun with these tracks. There is literally nothing in the lyrics to ponder, leaving you to flail your limbs about in your living room or, more fittingly, a field at a warm summer festival.

Most tracks on The Beatific Visions stick around the 2 minute mark. Anything more than that would just be stretching the point unnecessarily, something that Brakes have never felt the need to do. Hamilton does occasionally get a bit more serious, albeit in his own refreshing way. "Isabel" is a touching acoustic number and one that highlights the simplistic, truthful lyrics. Hamilton's lyrics are akin to the opinions of a young child; sweet, innocent and seemingly free from any kind of ulterior motive.

"If I Should Die Tonight" details what to tell a loved one if he should die, but not in an impending death situation. He seems to be speaking from a paranoid, vulnerable state of mind; one that you cannot help but admire. With this kind of honest lyric on show it is extremely easy to feel at ease. Now I don't know about you, but complete honesty is not something I experience in my life all that much! Thank you, escapism!

Thankfully Brakes' sound has not been altered at all from the first record, combining driving acoustic rhythms with simple, precise lead riffs. There's something earthy and rural about the chugging acoustic guitar that drives Brakes forward, as in future festival pleaser "Margarita". Elsewhere on the album we go slightly country on "Mobile Communication", a song about the frustrations of having to rely on mobile phones.

In many ways The Beatific Visions has everything the first album had, which is a marvel really considering the apparent spontaneity of "Give Blood". Brakes are darn good fun and you will probably never hear a band that sounds like them anywhere else. They've been favourites of mine for a while and they're now officially favourites of The-Mag's too.

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