3 out of 5

I mean, yes, we do not have distorted guitars, and synths have been replaced by a more traditional piano, and vocals are not treated with fuzz, so this is “acoustic,” but ditch a lot of the other trappings that term generally brings with it, as, via Big Black Delta, the non-parenthetical ‘reworks’ part of this title feels more apropos: especially on opener Betamax, these are still pretty big and bombastic tracks, with Jonathan Bates’ irrepressible melodies turning that guitar and piano into relatively grand pop ballads, that could certainly pass muster as full-fleshed tunes if we hadn’t heard the fully amped up versions on 4 and BBDLP01, from which these seven songs have been plucked.

Betamax is quite a swing and a big hit, stripping things (initially) down to some bare bones a great way to highlight how memorable the sing-songey nature of the track is, and when it explodes with some loud drums and lots of backup singers – man, it goes wide. That said, one result of the “rework” process is – either by song selection or more purposefully, or my ears are just perceiving things a certain way – is that all of the songs are kind of reduced to a very similar cadence, and pattern. So while you recognize the songs and they still maintain their ear worm-ability, they also blend together more than they do on album, without the gloss of “this is a rock song” or “this is a dance song” to break things up. And without the blasts of the plugged in stuff, though it’s nice to have Bates crooning more directly in our ears, his lovey-dovey and often vague lyrics are now even more forefront, and they do tend to fall apart after an unsteady verse or so. (Although this was / has been stronger since 4).

I’d say that’s partially why it was wise to keep these at seven songs, because the limited nature – at least as presented – starts to feel a bit obvious by the time you get to the last couple songs. Thankfully, these wrap things up well: Huggin’ & Kissin’ feels particularly stripped down, adding a folk vibe missing from the preceding tunes, and Vessel, a shorter tune, has a lighter step with its salsa-esque beat. Just kinda mixing things up, right on the way out, leaving a good impression.