FACT: YOU NEED THIS ALBUM

If you've never seen The Beta Band perform live, you might be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss has been about. Hyped by the NME, praised by Radiohead, name-checked in the Hollywood version of the Nick Hornby best-seller, compared to (at one stage or another) The Stone Roses, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Primal Scream and DJ Shadow, and yet most people would be pushed to hum even one of their tunes. See them live, however, and it's virtually impossible not to be at least moved, if not entirely converted to the cause. Homemade films and wacky costume wearing contribute to rather than dominate their elaborate performances - where band members change roles, mix breakbeats with folk melodies, pure pop harmonies with wild sonic experimentation (the sound of dogs barking, seagulls squawking, etc.), and grooves so funky Sly Stone himself would approve. Well, the good news is that 'Heroes...', their third album, is an attempt to marry this "intangible live element" with studio sorcery. The better news, is that it works, brilliantly. Self-produced (with a final mix from Nigel Godrich), 'Heroes...' is the Beta's at their most polished, dramatic, and convincing. Whether they're pairing lyrics despairing Blair's mediocrity/hypocrisy with unrelenting rock 'n' roll ('Assessment'), or burning the candle for gorgeous, romantic pop ('Space Beatle', 'Pure For') or achieving the somewhat remarkable feat of making psychedelic funk ('Easy') 'jams' sound imminently listenable, 'Heroes...' remains a record so consistently rich in ideas that you'd be cheap not to buy it.

This will frustrate those uptight and unimaginative enough to believe that categories are everything, and delight fans for whom the Beta Band's state of constant sonic evolution is the point, not the problem. After the fragmentary inscrutability of The Three EPs compilation and their eponymous debut, and the (only relatively) straightforward song-making of Hot Shots II, the band's third album owes as much to a beefier live sound as it does to their penchant for in-studio tinkering and tail-chasing. The result is a record that's invigorating, dependably baffling and already sound like a future classic. Flicking between trippy guitar rock, woozy pastoral pop, electro-funk and barbershop folk, standouts such as Assessment, Wonderful, Troubles and Pure For are as good as anything this great group have produced

Mojo Magazine April 2004
Beta Band - Heroes To Zeros
4/5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Allen

Startling smash and grab raid on rock history

It seemed apt that Nick Hornby should choose The Beta Band as a reference point for High Fidelity's screen adaptation. Like Hornby, the Anglo-Scottish quartet are skilled cultural magpies, and on this third full album the same nimble-fingered tendencies that informed their self-titled debut and 2001's Hot Shots II are still apparent. They lift The Edge's spiky guitar riffing on Assessment and Jean-Miche Jarre's synth during Space Beatle's ambient belch. On Easy, meanwhile, they even mimic the infectious funk licks of Stevie Wonder's Superstition. But to dismiss Heroes To Zeroes as a mere exercise in rock homage underestimates The Beta Band's charm. And so a barrage of scattershot drum breaks, electronic squelches and Stephen Mason's dreamy vocals makes for yet another woozy pop assault.