“I Take A Break” is one-half of Beavoys’ latest double A-side single, along with “Solar Hug,” but there is so much to unpack in this one song that I’m just going to worry about this three-and-a-bit-minute sonic slice for now.
If the previous single, “Seeing This Way” hooked into a sort of psychedelic, west-coast pop, we are in a more jazz-infused soundscape this time. It’s still pop, or indie-pop perhaps, genres aren’t important really, but now the song is drenched in some interesting brass-work and guitar flourishes. This ornateness balances out with a Beatle-esque chorus (think more Seargent Pepper than Rubber Soul), and a lightness and buoyancy that is missing in modern music.
And if the music is interesting, the lyrics will blow your mind! The title is derived from the idea of bailing out of the media bombardment of questionable reportage and opinion, the rhetoric of social media, the agenda of newspapers, and the allegiances of TV channels. It reminds us of some simple yet potent truths – that this propaganda only works if we engage with it, it reminds us that there isn’t safety in numbers, and it might is certainly not right. And it reminds us that just because the majority think a certain way doesn’t make it right.
When Alan James, the man behind Beavoys, talks about television in this context, I’m reminded of the image of a TV set in an empty room, broadcasting to no one, its opinions and policies merely bouncing off the walls and having no effect. It’s a great metaphor, and something that you can make happen in your life.
The ability to mix such buoyant pop with precise, purposeful and poignant messaging is admirable, and perhaps, given the entrenchment of and lack of trust in the traditional news and opinion vehicles that is prevalent at the moment, maybe it is to songwriters and artists we should turn for our talking points. Even bouncy, jazz-fuelled, psychedelic pop songs like this. Especially a bouncy, jazz-fuelled, psychedelic pop song like this!
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