Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Art inspires art, the very reason it exists is to bring joy and reflection to those that suffer and to stimulate the mind for others to feel the arousal of the written word, the provocation of the aural inducements, and the eyes wide open motivation of sincere urging to create; art is to the world as flirting is to the dance of love, one cannot exist without the other.
Following on from three hugely successful single releases, London’s Freya Beer storms into the autumn of an artistic year with an album built on the spur of art and the prompt impulse derived from the medium of cinema and personal interpretation.
In Beast, the gothic undertone strikes hard upon the listener, and yet it is a tone delivered with flavour, with a sense of ecstasy, of elation, and blissful exultation upon the execution of dreams made real.
Written in seclusion during a world-wide collective period where art took on the same meaning as those who saw the Renaissance through the gaze of the explosion of painters willing to capture life at its most raw, perhaps despondent, certainly in a maelstrom of doubt and uncertainty of how life would change, would alter in the post pandemic world; Freya Beer frames the narrative with a particular sense of occasion, in the simmering groove of intoxicating pursuit of communication and illustration.
From the opening heady bars of the album’s title track, the excellent The Calm Before The Storm, Dear Sweet Rosie, To The Heavens And All Their Work, Secret Garden, and Put It To The Test, Freya Beer reveals the nuance of the silver screen that inspired this avalanche of industry, and as art must inspire art, and artists are moved to bring their vision to the modern day audience, so to does Beast live up to its expectations, its ambitions. The effect is one of stirring ambition, and as the beast roars, so to does the growl of temptation, one that is pursued with ardour by the fan that will seek out this album of gracious perception.
Release the beast, for art always needs its creatures of the night.
Freya Beer releases Beast in October 7th via Sisterhood Records.
Ian D. Hall