(Photo Credit - Amanda Holloman)
Album Review - Beta Radio: Year of Love (June 11, 2021)
Beta Radio (Benjamin “Ben” Mabry and Brent Holloman) are releasing their latest album Year of Love on Friday. Year of Love contains songs first featured on Beta Radio’s recently released Way of Love and Afraid of Love EPs along with four brand new tracks. The end result is a well paced album that evokes sounds of folk and Americana throughout. Musically the album knows how to pull in all the right places. Additionally, the Wilmington, NC duo's harmonies are on point throughout the album.
The album reaches a powerful climax with the instrumental single "The Lowlands". On "The Lowlands", Holloman noted “‘The Lowlands’ is an exercise in trying to hold the tension for as long as possible musically speaking, while still being (hopefully) enjoyable. We wanted it to not be predictable, but to flow from one part to another. Finding bits and pieces of it along the way, it came together over a few years”. The track moves so well throughout and is so well paced, it's hard to tell where Mabry and Holloman are going next.
Year of Love is a strong album in the folk/Americana genre. It's musical storytelling in a way that doesn't happen too often these days. Mabry and Holloman bring in a great deal of instrumentation into this album to make it work, and it just does. It doesn't ever feel overworked, but rather they get the mixture just right. For Americana fans, this is one you need to check out.
Rating - 4/5
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