Waters Scholars #12 – BeaVoys (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

With a sassy blend of joyous pop sounds and the sort of lyrical quest for meaning that we haven’t seen much of since the heady days of the sixties, BeaVoys drops the video for “Waters Scholars #12,” and the additional visual aspect adds and underscores a wonderful sense of humour and whimsy.

Taken from the recent quartet of songs that make up the Sweet Tough Alien EP, this slightly reworked version retains all the sonic flavours – the gentle drive, the Talking Heads’ style response vocals, the breezy blasts of brass, the mix of spoken word and Alan James engaging vocals, and everything else that made it so great in the first place.

But now with a visual component, the message becomes even clearer. As aquatic images and flowing water pass before our eyes, the idea of the universe as a metaphorical ocean, with life carried from place to place on its cosmic tides, is unmissable.

And by the time the aliens appear and the robot band joins the party, you will know enough to see the wisdom in the wit, the sense in the silliness. Even the most respected biologist will tell you that the question of how the building blocks of life first started doing their thing on this planet, and even whether they are all naturally occurring here in the first place, is still a much-debated point. So why not the idea that some of those elements came from elsewhere, carried here on the randomness of the universal tides? It’s hardly the most far-fetched idea you will find on social media today! Not by a long way!

On the other hand, the often obvious (and sometimes not so obvious) use of AI throughout the video, along with the cryptic written cards, seems to invite the viewer to discern everything they perceive, taking responsibility for their interpretations, rather than relinquishing it to others.

Who knew that pop music could be this clever? Well, Alan James for one!

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