Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 26/3/07
Label: Virgin

Like a wrestler covered in goose fat, The Bees remain impossible to pin down. With "Octopus", their third album, we again find ourselves in the midst of their not unfamiliar mix of wacky pop, dub stylings, country, folk, Latin and soul, recorded in their own Isle of Wight studio far away from the influence of 21st century fashion and trends.

All of which means that while "Octopus" probably won't earn them a sharp haircut or a Brit nomination anytime soon, it will, and does, provide the listener with an unpredictable and beguiling stew of sounds, styles and songs. From the opening slide guitar of "Who Cares What The Question Is?", with its vamping, seaside shuffle piano, we cross the Atlantic for a CSNY flavoured "Love In The Harbour", kicking back with the superb reggae rhythms and punchy brass of "Left Foot Stepdown".

While "Octopus" shys away from the rock influence of previous album, "Free The Bees" there is one common thread running through Paul Butler's just-so-fi production here and that's the tight as a snare drum harmony vocals dripping effortlessly across just about everything. "Got To Let Go" is typical - a stand out, summery blast of colloquial but Latino jazz with an irresistible brass and organ riff soundtracking an amusing tale of a job in Texas, "cutting grass before breakfast…saving up for a Lexus."

"Listening Man" provides the compulsory soul-ballad on "Octopus", while "Stand" is simply Fun Boy Three-tastic with its thump of a beat and sinister vocals. "(This Is For The) Better Days" floats on a funky groove that lulls the listener into a false sense of normality before "The Ocularist" plucks at acoustic guitar and Jew's Harp on a McCartney-esque tale about getting back to the sea.

Elsewhere, "Hot One!" turns an awkward guitar riff into a rollicking, Balkan "Teenage Kicks" before The Bees unleash their final bit of stoner fun with the brief, but funny, "End Of The Street", featuring bonkers guitars, duck calls, car horns, howls and squeaky toys. It's enough to make you wonder if they ever actually see civilisation beyond the Isle Of Wight.

The Bees are back then with a ten-tentacled underwater beast of an album that shows the band's mastery of an impressive and almost limitless range of musical styles. Not sure what you'd file it under, but while that may worry some, for The Bees it's yet another triumph.

    by Andy Strickland