I wish that all songwriters were as intelligent and adventurous as Beavoys, especially when it comes to just how deep and thoughtful lyrics can be. On this latest release, a double A-side, “Skilled Sheep Farmer” stands out as a reminder that songs which might at first glance seem mundane might actually be meaningful, metaphorical even, things that come across as quaint could actually be clever and questioning.
Part spoken and part sung, and set to a 60s-infused, psych-folk sound, it tells of this titular agrarian and the strange names and practices he has on his farm. And then the penny drops, and what you realize is that you have here a sort of Orwellian, Animal Farm-style metaphor, where the almost childlike has hidden meaning.
Like its sonic traveling companion, “Compatibility,” there is plenty here that is not just reminiscent of the late 60s sound, but more specifically very Beatle-esque, not so much nodding to what the music of their final years sounded like, but what perhaps their mid-seventies output might have been like had they stayed together. Sonic extrapolation!
And if “Compatibility” is more groove-driven and funky, more fully psychedelic, and “Skilled Sheep Farmer” leans towards a hippy-folk, quasi-political statement, when taken together, they give us a sonic glimpse of a decade that never quite existed, or at least an alternative take on one that did!
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[…] that early-Stones-esque groove kicks “Water Scholars” off, it is clear that BeaVoys‘ reference points are as much the sound of the past as they are to be found in the modern […]
[…] that early-Stones-esque groove kicks “Waters Scholars” off, it is clear that BeaVoys‘ reference points are as much the sound of the past as they are to be found in the modern […]