Brian Sendrowitz’s Beat Radio, an act I previously described as “a band formed upon the notion of art as an undying passion” have always challenged that notion in some way, crafting songs which elevate what could be mistaken for small, mundane things to importance. As we wrote in a preview post back in December:

“[Their songs are] living stories boiled down to key scenes, playing out like small movies – packed with love and loss and life, the sorts of things that happen to everyone yet never fail to feel like the most important things in the world”

Beat Radio’s fifth album Take It Forever feels like a culmination of ideas, the product of some long, hard thinking on this topic. The title tracks opens the record with this very much in mind, diving head-on into the oncoming rush of disappointment and frustration and impossible dreams to offer a hand of comfort. “So take it easy,” Sendrowitz urges, “take it forever. I hope this song makes you feel better.” When the song lists NPR and premières and well-paid publicists it’s not some anarcho-punk cheap shot at our consumerist culture, but rather a warning to other artists that such measures of success (and the constant need for validation they bring) will only lead to the liquor cabinet. What’s more, the song isn’t blaming anyone for feeling such a way but rather explaining it, citing our conditioning through the modern fairy-tales of popular culture and self-improvement as the main source of dissatisfaction and hurt.

‘”We take our stories from television
we’re haunted by our own ambition
and no one’s looking out for each other
when everything is a competition

everyone is casting spells
building myths around themselves

and all we want is everything
and all we find is suffering

the point of everything i guess
is “don’t give in to bitterness”’

‘Lost in the World’, which we we lucky enough to première on WTD,  is what we called “an autobiographical song… [which] becomes a call to arms for creative people”. It offers an alternative to the money/fame malaise, a reminder that art can be justified in other ways. ‘Losing Time’ achieves the difficult task of feeling very much of the now without being ham-fisted, weaving modern references into the fabric of the song rather than having them front and centre. “You could open up your heart,” he sings, “to people that you’ve never met. A poet for the modern age, famous on the internet”. The song also opens up the idea of the art-based messages being applicable to life in general, or maybe that art and life are so entwined that they are one and the same. Either way, it wants you to know that disappointment and darkness are temporary, that small joys are abundant and to be celebrated.

“Build it up and watch it all come crashing down
when its over start to build it up again
Even if its not the life you dreamed about
everything you did was worth it in the end

celebrate the things you love
this is where you’re meant to be
try and keep an open heart
dream a little dream of me”

‘Art is a War, There Are Casualties’ attempts to breathe life into the “If I Manage To Reach Just One Person” truism, a wonderful idea that’s been repeated into cliché by false-modesty, and ‘Song for Camden Power’ follows up with a perfect example. As explained in this post over at Impose, the track is written in memory of Beat Radio fan Camden who kept in touch with Sendrowitz over the internet. Sadly, he lost his life too soon in a road traffic accident, and the song is part-elegy, part-celebration of his life, exploring how human connection brings meaning and value to what can otherwise seem a confusing and arbitrary existence. ‘We’ll Be Forgotten’ plays like an explanation for previous strife (“I was just searching for a feeling, something to keep me from unravelling”) and an attempt to come to terms with our relative insignificance, while ‘Dreaming of the West’ details how companionship can relieve the pressure of this in other ways, both in sharing the existential load and helping us forget it entirely:

“We were brightening the corners
we were dreaming of the West
we were moving over mountains
we were fighting loneliness
feeling was our sickness,
feeling nothing was our guilt
I’m a little lost without you
It’s the simple things you miss”

‘Elizabeth’ continues this idea. Part-apology (“I’m a little hard to read, even though I’m easy going”), part-expression of gratitude (“and sometimes I still wonder if I’m still dreaming”), the song is a bona-fide love song, denying emphatically that romance is dead (Sendrowitz met Elizabeth, his wife, in pre-school) and cementing the idea that the philosophies on Take it Forever extend beyond creative circles. ‘I Dreamed The Internet Ended’ barely breaks the one minute mark, before ‘Invisible Cities’ closes the album, a rousing, stripped-back love letter of a song sent from the edge of nothing, a realisation or admittance that we cannot do it alone, one final insistence that human connection makes it all worthwhile.

“I was in the basement of a bar
I was at the end of a subway car
I was falling asleep on a silver cloud
I was wondering where you are now
And I’m out on the edge of the world
Waiting for you
Looking out for your love”

With a large dose of hope and a pervading sense of goodwill, Take It Forever plays like the manifesto of someone who doesn’t know all the answers but finds meaning in asking the questions, the words not of a revolutionary or prophet but an ordinary man striving to make life extraordinary, just as it should be.

Take It Forever was release on Sendrowitz’s own Awkward For Life Records and you can buy it now from the Beat Radio Bandcamp page.

The post Beat Radio – Take It Forever appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Brian Sendrowitz of Beat Radio (who we have written about quite a few times) is working to put out more music on his label Awkward for Life Records this year, and this split 7″ with Kid in the Attic is the first to be released.

Kid in the Attic start things off with ‘Roles Reversed,’ a charged song of passion and wistful angst with lead Maia Macdonald’s intimate vocals reminiscent of Stars. Confronting relationships and self in all of their uncertainty, the song ditches the pop romance of True and Eternal Love in favour of something less clear and more true, emotions that are susceptible to the erosion of time. “This is how change begins” sings Macdonald, “little light little crack in the door gets in”.

Beat Radio’s offering sees Sendrowitz combine rock principles with electronics to create a track that sits somewhere between indie pop/rock and Architecture in Helsinki. Unlike many of his peers, for whom the use of synths is a self-indulgent flourish, Sendrowitz builds the track on his electronics, dropping the guitar and drums to a supporting role. As ever with Beat Radio, the lyrics are impassioned and somehow nostalgic, as if written from some time beyond the event where every circumstance, both good and bad, takes on an endearing glow.

The record is out on the 10th March and you can put your order in via the Awkward for Life Bandcamp page.

The post Kid in the Attic // Beat Radio 7″ appeared first on Various Small Flames.