Sifting through my daily inundation of email from PR agencies, I came across some more of that good pop music not spinning on the radio. Beat Radio has just released the first single off their new album. “Dreaming Wide Awake” is one of the many storytelling tracks on Hard Times, Go! which drops tomorrow on Awkward For Life Records.
Giving a listen to “Dreaming Wide Awake” at first had me focused on the musicality. A simple drum, flute and bass line fleshes out into a very 60’s pop/rock inspired arrangement. The melody also maintains that stripped-down cleanliness. This leaves room for the addition of some great electronic embelishments while also allowing the listener to focus on the lyrics. Those words are the reflection of the writer’s inside view of how a new relationship is affecting him.
Last year Beat Radio set out to create a “adventurous, expansive concept album” according to the press release. That’s a pretty lofty goal when you are working in your frontman’s NY studio. But listening to “Dreaming Wide Awake” and “Hurricanes” (currently available for free download) I think they may have succeeded. They have a good handle on the use of guitar effects and electronic sounds to achieve that “large” sound on tracks that benefit from it while keeping things compact for others.
Visit beatradio.org to learn more about Beat Radio.
— KC
