Beau - Creation 1971

Beau's debut album (Beau) had suffered from some monotony in its arrangements, which used nothing other than the singer/songwriter's 12-string guitar. For his second album, Creation, fellow Dandelion artists the Way We Live provided full-band backing on some of the cuts, which made for a substantial improvement. At its heart, though, it remained average-at-best folk-rock troubadouring fare, the work of a sensitive observation-oriented composer without much vocal distinction or force. The chugging "Nine Minutes" was one of Beau's best efforts, but his more subdued numbers were hindered by unmemorable standard folk melodies (though these at least had a darker hue than those on his debut) and reserved, colorless singing. On "Creation," the music did take an unpredictable turn into quasi-psychedelia, with whispered spoken narration on top of swirling discordant organ, in a manner not too far removed from some of early Pink Floyd's spacier interludes. "Silence Returns," too, goes in an unexpected direction when its basic doomy riff is joined by scorching distorted hard rock guitar some ways into the track, and these two songs alone make Creation a more interesting effort than its predecessor. AMG.
 

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