Hot Shots II

I think I liked this more than Heroes to Zeros. There are some good moments on here; I liked Quiet a fair bit. But that sample/quote of Daydream in Squares is practically a cover version, and serves to remind that the original is at least as good, if not better.

I’d never heard of the Beta Band before, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. It’s a bit psychedelic and experimental with some electronic flair, but the production still felt minimalist and not over the top. Overall, it comes together in a really good way.

Early 00s thirty something dinner party music.

Unexpectedly excellent, and seemingly an predecessor of the "chillwave" sound that become increasingly popular through the late 2000s until the mid-2010s. I enjoyed the carefree, quirky (but not twee) energy here. Lots of very catchy choruses, and nice bits of organic instrumentation. Surpasses its awful album cover.

Це для мене прям відкриття, не шарив абсолютно цей гурт і попадання можливо не ідеальне в мій смак, але близько до того. Я ще подивився що в них є цікавий більш ранній матеріал (3 ЕР), так що буду досліджувати.

Quite fun actually

I expected a little more energy from this after seeing the album artwork. Just kinda boring to me. Tepid vocal deliveries and unremarkable instrumentals. This isn’t bad but nothing stands out enough where I can say I enjoyed it. The best song here is Squares but it’s 90% interpolation of another song.

This one kind of fell in and out of actively listening to it for me. It was a pretty decent album. I didn't remember much from the other Beta Band album outside of being bored by it and finding the inclusion baffling. This still had some boring moments, but equally fun and good parts to make up for it. Can I recall any song 5 minutes after listening to it? No, but I can't really dislike it either.

A band that isn't as interesting as they think they are. Perfectly pleasant shuffling indie, and Steve Mason's voice is quite endearing.

Something about these guys…… it’s nothing fancy, it’s just good meat-and-potatoes alterna-rock. I like it even though I can’t really tell you why.

The Beta Band is difficult to categorize, and “Hot Shots II” is a mixture of electronic beats, rock guitars, and harmony vocals, embedded in a random pop mix. That doesn't hurt anyone, but I was waiting the whole time for something catchy or remarkable. As a result, Hot Shots II is largely boring, though not in an easy listening kind of way, but rather with an alternative vibe. It has been written that there is nothing comparable to it—which makes sense: the audience for this kind of music is likely to be rather small. At least the record was well produced.

Favorite track(s): Quiet, Life

Hot Shots! Part Deux - they were really scraping the barrel at this point weren't they with a ridiculous plot involving Saddam Hu.......................... sorry, what's that? I've listened to the wrong thing?

It was ok, closer to the trip hop genre, which I love, but this is not as good as some of the things from that time. The vocals are not good and the instrumentals are just ok-ish.

Sad kako znam za Django Django zahvaljujući ovoj listi, mogu reći da mi ove zvuče kao njihova nedorađena verzija. Pristojan album.

This sure is an extra ordinary album. Not extraordinary. Just ordinary. But REALLY REALLY ordinary. Yawn.

A really strange one, this. It's deceptively minimalist in terms of the limited pool of instrumentation being showcased, but it manages to make less count by looping passages on top of one another in a very psychedelic fashion, with some reverb-heavy, slightly melodramatic 70s-like vocals and influences from trip hop / electronica adding to the dreamy, kind of smoky vibe going on.

It's very clever, but the question is whether it's a bit too clever for its own good at times as to feel inviting enough for a relisten. It worked fairly well today as a lazy morning in bed type of album.

This is a great album. I enjoyed it from the first song through the last song and am thinking of putting it into my permanent collection.

I enjoyed their newer album a little more. Didn’t really find anything too interesting in this one. Loow 3

This was not very good. I don’t think I needed to hear this. It wasn’t that bad but it was boring and bland.