Beequeen started out as a classical drone band. You can still hear some of the old drone influences around the album. Since 2000 or so they’ve been making a concerted effort to become something more of a relaxed pop band. With “Port Out Starboard Home” they continue down this path. The album is essentially a collection of extremely mellow rock in the vein of Movietone and Stereolab.
“Port Out Starboard Home” is the best track on the whole album. It reminds me of a long-lost Movietone tone track, complete with a slow, comforting mood. This is probably where the theme of traveling feels most sincere. A few tracks on here try to copy the Stereolab template (such as “Someday today” and “Giant’s Hill”) complete with drum machine and bass. Unfortunately these often feel a little flat as Olga Wallis does not have the same dynamic range as Stereolab’s many singers.
The drone tracks belong to their previous incarnation. Actually these often mix with their pop inclinations, leading to a nice mixture of rock conventions with drone. The Fun Years does a similar thing, mixing drone with rock aspects. However Beequeen’s take on this seems rather original and a little darker. Often the drone pieces conjure up mixed emotions: at times they add to the rainy day spirit of the album, other times they appear to simply exist failing to add much to the recording.
I felt the entire album felt a little uneven. The memorable songs on here are quite enjoyable but there seems to be too few ideas. What was supposed to be a more meditative outing ends up sounding a bit thin. “Port Out Starboard Home” isn’t bad by any means but it could have been more engaging.
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