I like a band that tries just that bit harder. A band that doesn’t quite fit into the predefined categories for acceptability in today’s musical world and is willing to put the time and effort into their music to make it interesting and individual. A band like Bec Lauder and The Noise.
Bec Lauder and The Noise are a three piece rock band from Manhattan and it is to their credit that they do not sound like a three piece band with their album “The Vessel” having a musical reach that seems forever willing to go in search of its grasp. There is, for example, a determined theatricality to be found in Bec Lauder’s voice and much is made of many and myriad influences yet the band still sounds like an original creation and the end result is oddly non-temporal. Unafraid of tempo changes and making emotional connections, Bec Lauder and The Noise storm through these twelve songs like they had just invented each and every genre that they choose to plunder for inspiration and, while you may think that I am perhaps lining this band up for an accusation of being simply derivative, that is not the case as there is something – perhaps best described as a sense of purpose – that make them considerably more interesting and involving than most.
“The Vessel” could be dropped into many of the time frame of the past and it would still sound fresh. Fortunately for us, Bec Lauder and The Noise are a band of the here and now that can make music that can sound relevant to today, yesterday or tomorrow and can do so with considerable vigour. This is indeed a worthy album.
Best song: “Mysterious Boy.”
Verdict: Accomplished.