Beau
's debut album (
) had suffered from some monotony in its arrangements, which used nothing other than the
singer/songwriter
's 12-string guitar. For his second album,
Creation
, fellow
Dandelion
artists
the Way We Live
provided full-band backing on some of the cuts, which made for a substantial improvement. At its heart, though, it remained average-at-best
folk-rock
troubadouring fare, the work of a sensitive observation-oriented composer without much vocal distinction or force. The chugging
"Nine Minutes"
was one of
's best efforts, but his more subdued numbers were hindered by unmemorable standard
folk
melodies (though these at least had a darker hue than those on his debut) and reserved, colorless singing. On
"Creation,"
the music did take an unpredictable turn into quasi-
psychedelia
, with whispered spoken narration on top of swirling discordant organ, in a manner not too far removed from some of early
Pink Floyd
's spacier interludes.
"Silence Returns,"
too, goes in an unexpected direction when its basic doomy riff is joined by scorching distorted
hard rock
guitar some ways into the track, and these two songs alone make
a more interesting effort than its predecessor. ~ Richie Unterberger