Atlanta alt-rocker Beau Anderson has released his fierce hook- laden debut EP Soundtrack of Letting Go– a dark, seductive, groovy and gritty album about feeling stuck. Laced with echoes of British indie of the naughties with its jagged riffs, dark resonant vocals and serrated soundscapes, it’s a lyrically and musically heavy album that echoes that feeling of post-college hopelessness. Soundtrack of Letting Go has a stoner rock cadence as it takes on themes of time ticking away, feeling trapped and not knowing how to get out, immense heartache, aging and death. Lyrically, he returns to imagery of clocks, guns, apocalypse, and the heavens. His tuned-down, guitar-first song writing style lands somewhere between Randy Rhoads, Joe Duplantier and Josh Homme, while his vocals are more akin to Royal Blood or Jack White. Anderson has been playing in bands since he was ten, and now in his mid-twenties is a seasoned road dog. With his previous projects (Seven Year Witch and The Twotakes in particular), Anderson has shared bills with rock heavy-hitters like Sevendust, Molly Hatchet, Everclear, Eve 6, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Sebastian Bach, Nelson, Quiet Riot, Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors, Winger, Of Montreal, Escape the Fate and more.
The album kicks off with ‘Fix It,‘ an aggressively heavy song that would fit equally into a skateboarding or professional wrestling video montage. There’s an anger in Anderson singing, “Give me something meaningful / Something to die for / It comes as no surprise / That you’re not gonna fix it / and you never could.” Anderson’s low and slow guitar is pushed through a Jack White / Third Man Records Plasma Coil pedal, giving it a trashy, fuzzed out sound that’s played with the inspired simplicity of a pop hit. Anderson describes his guitar playing here as that of a “boneheaded caveman,” but his years behind the instrument land the song somewhere between Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age.
“Do you remember that video all these celebrities made singing ‘Imagine’ during COVID?” asks Anderson. “I saw that and thought, ‘fuck these guys, all locked up in their mansions. They aren’t going to fix anything. We’re all doomed.’ Chase came up with the line, ‘Don’t it feel like we’re running with scissors / staring into the sun,’ and I’d been singing, ‘Wish I’d seen the world before it burned down.’ The song doesn’t offer a solution. It’s bitching at somebody else for not being able to fix something. It’s just about lashing out.”
The ‘Fix It’ video is a fun and nightmarish fever dream starring Anderson’s old Seven Year Witch bandmate, singer Aaron Langford, as the manic spokesman for the product ‘Fix It.‘ Anderson toils away as a factory worker putting together tubes of ‘Fix It,‘ a green-goo snake oil product that’s the solution to all of life’s problems. Like the movie Groundhog Day, he does the same meaningless tasks over and over. Anderson breaks free from the soul-crushing cycle of life with some over-the-top, cartoonish gun and hatchet violence as he hunts the spokesman through the woods like Predator while chugging bottles of ‘Fix It.’
The slow and seductive ‘Know by Now‘ has a guitar so heavy it’ll leave you buried six feet under and asking Hades himself for help getting back up. The drum pattern has a one-two, one-two, one-two-three-four pattern that’s built to bang your head to. Each verse has a middle-of-the-night time, starting at three AM, that tells the chronological story of heartbreak, betrayal and death. The extremely catchy chorus has Anderson call-and-responding his own vocals with, “I thought you’d know by now / (What this means to me) / I hope you figured out / (What you’re watching leave).” Breaking free of a verse-chorus-verse forever structure, the song ends in a satisfyingly powerful bridge-outro-solo climax.
The ‘Know by Now‘ video plays out in a faux continuous shot as an insomniac Anderson gets wasted on beer and booze to get through a night of grief-based delusion. Should he call or text ‘her’ while in the throes of drunken sadness? Anderson consults himself as his own angel and devil as the video moves into its denouement of psychedelic madness and destruction.
The groove-heavy ‘Standing Still‘ is a song about feeling stuck in place, not accomplishing anything, and not having a clue on how to get out of the mire. It’s about time passing too fast and watching your life slip past your own eyes—going through the motions in life and wanting more. There’s an implied hope to the song, in that if you recognize that you’re trapped, you might be able to do something about it. The song is carried by a gnarly guitar lick that hits so hard, like a brutal hypno ray. The break into the chorus, “It’s hard to feel supersonic when you’re standing still,” might be the coolest part of this entire record. It’s one of those moments where you feel like you’ve heard it a million times on the first listen, but it’s completely fresh and new.
“In the opening line, ‘Different strokes, I wanted to be a Libertine / But at this point, I’ll settle for anything’ I’m talking specifically about the band. I used to say, ‘fuck The Strokes,’ but Chase tweaked that line to make it less explicitly anti-Strokes. I’d love to be in The Libertines. That’d be dope as hell.”
Anderson’s favourite band is Arctic Monkeys, and his video for ‘Standing Still‘ is a homage to their ‘Cornerstone‘ video that finds lead vocalist Alex Turner singing the song against a white background in a single shot. Similarly, the ‘Standing Still‘ video finds Anderson pounding a beer, then standing as still as possible against a green background in an Andy Warhol meets David Lynch piece of experimental minimalism. After consuming three-plus minutes of prolonged eye contact and amazing hair, Anderson’s final fall, ironically, has the impact of action-packed film endings like Jaws or Star Wars. You kind of feel like cheering.
The musically nasty alt-rock ‘As If‘ hits with lumbering, sludgy guitar hits built to topple civilizations. It’s a song of failing romance—staying with someone you know isn’t going to work out, but going along with it anyway. Hurt is inevitable. The bridge moves like an angelic flight over a battlefield with the oh-woo-woo gang vocals. “You gave me your everything / As if we’re bulletproof,” Anderson sings.
The dark and provocative ‘Talk Talk Talk‘ has power in its smooth confidence. The mega-hooky way the vocals flow over the bouncy, chunky guitar lines carries a pop sensibility that makes this hard rock song incredibly danceable. Anderson sings, “You cross your fingers so tight / I’m shocked the bones don’t break” with an almost knowing wink, making this song of betrayal and lies feel like an intense and flirtatious confrontation.
Anderson’s Deftones-esque take on Arctic Monkeys’ ‘505‘ leaves behind their quiet, slow original. Instead we have a bigger, more driving, more choppy, more staccato, darker rendition. Anderson keeps the slow crescendo throughout the song, but this version is much heavier and dramatic, building to its grand ending. With lyrics like, “Not shy of a spark / The knife twists at the thought that I should fall short of the mark,” this song fits well into the overall themes of Soundtrack of Letting Go.
Anderson’s first memory is of 9/11. He was four years old and waddled into his mother’s bedroom to find her sitting on the bed watching the television. He thought she was watching a strange movie and was confused why they were showing the same images of planes hitting buildings over and over. Years later when he was eight, they were sat down in school and taught about this historic event that continues its ripple effect on our society. His first musical memories are of The Killers ‘Mr. Brightside.‘ He jokes that his song “Standing Still” could be his version of ‘Mr. Not-So-Brightside.‘
“Athens is where I spent my formative years,” says Anderson. “I’m thankful I got to grow up there, musically. It has a certain attitude. It’s a very punk town. Even if you’re not in a punk band there’s something punk there… even if you make pop. There’s a don’t-give-a-shit rawness there.”
“Music is the only thing I’m good at, the only thing I enjoy doing. It’s my life to write and play music. I spent that time figuring out my voice and how to use it. I didn’t have a vision for the band when I started this project. I was just writing all these songs. As long as you have your voice and music, that’s the ultimate job security. You can’t replace the voice of your band. I figured if it’s my name and it fails, then that’s all on me. I wanted to have something that’s mine at the end of the day. There’s a big freedom in having my name be the band, because there’s no limitations with what I can do. When I first heard my vocals on ‘Standing Still,’ I felt like it was the first song that was truly mine.”
On ‘Standing Still,‘ Anderson sings, “Too young to feel old, too old to be young / Time moves fast with a hand on the gun / Do I wanna know what’s on the radio when I won’t dance / ’cause I can’t to the Soundtrack of Letting Go.” The sentiment fits Anderson’s disillusionment with music and touring after tasting what true success could be. Giving in to self-destructive tendencies as he hit some of the worst times in his life.
“I wasn’t able to see these giant achievements and milestones that landed alongside my lowest points,” Anderson says, “Seeing our band’s name on the marquee of a sold-out show at the Whiskey a Go Go, then turning around and feeling miserable. ‘Soundtrack of Letting Go’ helped me fall in love with music again. I love playing live. I’ve learned how to be an entertainer, how to go on stage and have the confidence to put on a good show. I take pride in that. It’s something you have to learn how to do. My passion is getting in front of new people. Hopefully this record facilitates more of that. We’re already working on the next album. There’s no time to stop. More fun. More music. More shows.”
Soundtrack of Letting Go is out now!
Order: Bandcamp
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Beau Anderson – Soundtrack of Letting Go album art.
