Hot Shots II

Artist: The Beta Band
Label: Astralwerks
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: LP Record
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 724381044612
EAN: 0724381044612
ASIN: B00005K9Z7

Release Date: 2001-06-26

Hot Shots II

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Tracks:

Squares
Al Sharp
Human Being
Gone
Dragon
Broke
Quiet
Alleged
Life
Eclipse
Won [*]

Similar Items:

The Beta Band
Heroes to Zeros
The Three E.P.'s
The Best of the Beta Band
No Style

Amazon.com

Hot Shots II continues the Beta Band's play with epileptic beats and creepy melodies as they again rearrange a record collection stocked with Pink Floyd, Talk Talk, the Beatles, and the full Astralwerks catalog. A clipped toy piano inspires a shiver on "Al Sharp" while the swirling synth of "Eclipse" recalls Brian Eno's contribution to the Trainspotting soundtrack (which the Beta Band would have dominated were the movie made two years later). The album's deep-bass sounds and obvious craft are arresting, but attempts at the band's cleverness or playfulness expose seams that would best remain hidden. The lyrics of "Eclipse" falter through a satirical allegory of politics, concluding with "the people with the answers," "the people with the questions," and "the people with the books" sitting down to "smoke a pizza pie." While almost every song contains layers of crackling vinyl, laser, or toy-piano effects, it's only in the closing hip-hop version of Harry Nilsson's "One" that the sounds neatly meld. Newcomers to the Beta Band should start with The Three E.P.'s, but old fans will find Hot Shots II a better second full-length than 1999's self-titled release. --Sarah Sternau

Album Description

Hot Shots II is the quartet's most accomplished work: folksy, futuristic, dubbed-out atmospherics and off-kilter pop. Think Beck meets Lee Perry meets Pink Floyd meets RZA meets Beatles. This U.S. version features an exclusive track. 11 tracks. 2001 release.

Customer Reviews:

Not groundbreaking but good nonetheless.......2005-12-15

If you mix some mellow Radio Head bits, a dash of Portis Head, a dollop of Pink Floyd and sprinkle liberally with spacy loops, vinyl noise and dub-atmosphere, voila, you have Hot Shots II. This was the first CD I heard from the Beta Band and while it didn't immediately grab me, I kept comming back to it. The musics subtlties and gentle electronica reward repeated listenings.

An imperfect but sorely unheralded masterpiece.......2005-01-23

Ignore the cheeky title which both plays on the band's frustrated potential and pays homage to a so-so Zucker-Abrams comedy. Ignore that, because I think the first half of this record is the best, most fully realized concept album of the past decade... and I don't even know if it's supposed to be a concept album. But it is complicated, addictive, beautifully melancholy and each song meshes perfectly with the one in front of and behind it (only two songs, the last two tracks, "Eclipse" and "Won" don't measure up to the standards of the rest of the material but everything else is primo).

Imagine a blend of Portishead, early Pink Floyd and, oddly enough, the Alan Parsons project and that's what this is. It also functions as a soundtrack to both heartbreak and the first rush of being in love; and those dual-roles are, of course, what the best pop music does.

The chill-out Beta Band album?.......2004-07-20

I picked up Hot Shots II shortly after I got ahold of the Beta Band's new album Heroes to Zeros, even though I was already familiar with several of the tracks. As the follow-up up to their much-maligned (even by the band itself) first album, Hot Shots II was generally regarded as a more polished and deliberate effort than its predecessor. While the record is certainly better than most of the trash out there today, I would say that it suffers from two weaknesses in the end. The first is its uneven quality; Squares is perhaps my favorite Beta Band song, but Eclipse is either a satire I don't get or simply a silly song with bad lyrics. The final track, a cover of One is the Loneliest Number, also sounds pretty out of place and probably should have been left off the album entirely. Another potential weakness is the fact that the album seems to find its sonic range early on and sticks with it to the end. Upon first listen, many of the songs sound fairly similar to each other. After a couple more listens you begin to appreciate the depth and subtlety of the music, but the fact remains that most of the tracks are assembled from the same combination of relaxed vocals, looped melodies, and spacy electronic effects. Those looking for more spontaneity and variety may want to check out the Three EPs or Heroes to Zeros first. If you're in the mood for some laid-back music with a touch of electronic psychedelia, though, Hot Shots II is a sure bet.

Superb.......2003-11-25

I stumbled across the video for "Squares," and after I heard the song, I took a chance and bought the cd. Overall, the cd is nonetheless, great. It's the type of cd you want to relax to, very slow and melodic with a twist of electronic. What can I say, I love it. I also saw Beta band live in Detroit when they were promoting the cd and they put on a fantastic show which made the cd that much more better.

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