Released a decade after the recently postedSeizure, Beat doesn't skip a beat in terms of delivering catchy, up-beat pop songs. The Tall Dwarfesque tape loops have been stripped down somewhat since, and replaced with rather minimal drum machine beats. You won't find too many weird sound fx, but a lot of empathic singing. At times, Chris is getting a bit too ambitious with his vocals - he can't really deliver the tonal range he's aiming for - and one is left to wonder if it wouldn't have been better had he resorted to the old Tall Dwarfs recipe of using sound fx to distort the vocals. Don't get me wrong, this is a good album, but it has its strengths in the songwriting rather than the delivery. He also experiments with horn fills in "The Hell of It", and if that sounds painful to you, let me assure you that it kind of works. The highlight of this album is probably the opening track, "It's Love", recently receiving unexpected popularity due to its use in a Heineken commercial. Overall, you can tell that he's lost some of the youthful playfulness and creativity that was so prevalent in earlier albums, but he's evolved in his songwriting, so to me this is a 5 out of 10. Heck, make it 6 for the Heineken song - I can't think of a person more deserving of gaining such exposure for his criminally overlooked body of work.
