Every Step's a Yes (Import)

VINYL FORMAT. "The music they make, from the stoned slice of sunshine of their debut Sunshine Hit Me, through the infectious rock of Free the Bees, and throughout 2007's more adventurous Octopus, is without ego or clear cultural signposts. The Bees could have been making this music on the Isle of Wight back in the Sixties, adding little splashes of dub, Latin and reggae to their white indie rock template, or they could be doing it forty years in the future, and it'd still sound the same. Needless to say, the band's new album Every Step's a Yes isn't a wild step into the unknown. On a new label, and coming out a decent length of time since its predecessor, the new record closely resembles the mood of Sunshine Hit Me, all wonderfully languid rhythms, subtle blasts of brass and hazy harmonies. Like all of The Bees' albums, it contains a couple of tracks so perfect that you wonder why this band aren't massive. Opener 'I Really Need Love' is basically two chords, a bit of sitar and a dollop of loveliness, which combines into the kind of all-encompassing uplift that would make a hardened cynic weep with joy. Following it, 'Winter Rose' seems ready built to sell us something or soundtrack a festival montage, its chugging organ and slowly insistent chorus stretching out like a particularly pleasant stretch after an afternoon nap . . . it's full of little moments of invention - the snaking wail of guitar feedback that worms its way through 'Change Can Happen,' or the hypnotic rhythm of 'Pressure Makes Me Lazy' - that capture your attention after a few listens. It's touches like this that make the record perfect to soundtrack a sunny summer afternoon, or at least make a rainy October morning seem a little brighter." - Aaron Lavery / Drowned in Sound