SELECTED REVIEWS:
BEDHEAD
"Beheaded"
By Ryan Junell
Austin 360 Staff Producer
Ahh... beautiful Bedhead.
I was disconnected and contemplative, alone and dreamy, over-rocked and under-soothed. Then "Beheaded" awoke in
my headphones. It was a mood-match made in music. Their craft, not unlike the Cowboy Junkies, is careful and quiet
with a sacred respect for the spaces between their sounds.
Bedhead proves that in spite of their harder-cored peers in the Texas music scene, power and feeling can be transmitted
by a thoughtful arrangement of volumes, melodies, lyrics, and beats. A focused range of intensities appear in the eleven
tracks on their newest Trance Syndicate release, "Beheaded," each with a distinctive bulge of massage that will tingle the
most tightened muscle. Every song is somehow like hearing an open and sincere confession from a dear friend.
"Beheaded" provides the listener journeys on sincere sonic magic carpets through the cathedral-like dismal qualities of
cities, countryside, and intensely personal innerscapes.
Nothing compares to experiencing Bedhead live, in spite of the splendid sound on the CD. The June performance by
Bedhead at Liberty Lunch in Austin was breathtaking and outdid previous recordings hands-down. The audience was
enraptured by the five-piece's depiction in music of solemn self-definition and quiet acknowledgement of the sadness and
beauty in life. Their show cannot be missed, I tell you!
So to put it simply, I easily listen to this CD on shuffle with the repeat on for several hours. If only my turntable worked
I could listen to their earlier records. My favorite tracks on "Beheaded": "The Rest of the Day", "Left Behind", "Roman
Candle", and "Felo de se".
RECOMMENDED
"Bedhead has, with 'Beheaded,' finally made the landmark album that will secure its place - even if just a parenthetical aside - in the musical history of this decade."
- Magnet
"'Beheaded' is one of those albums during which it is possible simply to lie on one's bed and contemplate its melancholy."
- NME, UK
"Four Stars"
- NOW, Toronto Weekly
"Hauntingly lucid melodies, coiling and engulfing with the power of a truly fatal seduction."
- Artforum
"Bedhead is an important band, no doubt about that."
- Pop Culture Press
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