There are albums that come along, without fuss or hype and grow into our consciousness through word of mouth firstly, then by the immense talent that drips from every note played. Beta by Terence Rowlands is such an album.
From the first notes of the opener ‘Overplayed’, its obvious the Rowlands is passionate about what he’s doing. It just adds a extra spark to the whole thing. Overplayed blends piano, guitar and strings with Rowlands’ honest vocals being centre of attention – and rightly so. The laidback country ‘Junkstore’ follows with its subtly addictive vibe.
Beta is full of acoustic led songs, delicately fused. Despite the fact the Rowlands said ‘It was recorded in stages around the country, in flats, houses and my brothers garage’ and because of this he had to do all the instrumentation separately himself, you don’t get a disjointed feeling at all.
Throughout the album there are indications of where Rowlands influences lie, vocally somewhere between Jason Downs, Adam Duritz and Thom Yorke. Rowlands has used his time to beautifully meld them together to produce something beautiful and quite unheard in a while round these parts. (more…)