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The New Year, "Newness Ends"

THE NEW YEAR, "NEWNESS ENDS"
After much anticipation, the first release from the group formed from the ashes of Bedhead has finally materialized. While it quite clearly sounds like the Kadane brothers playing together, this indeed is a new group that almost follows a sort of progression built from the last full-length Bedhead album, 1998's 'Transaction De Novo'. The songwriting core of the Kadane brothers have become more experimental in both time and key signature, whilst surprisingly at the same time being more direct. Unlike the frequent Bedhead appearance of lengthy intros, the New Year takes little to no time getting right to the point, resulting in an album of ten solid songs totalling under 35 minutes. This is a great example on how important the mixture of musicians can change a sound despite the writing core remaining the same. Included in the group is former Come, Codeine and cuurent Pullman guitarist Chris Brokaw on the drums, who does a remarkably impressive job keeping up with weird time signatures and subtle changes which take place on the entire record. It starts off with a kick and ends with a bang as well, the quiet moments are kept in the middle — almost the exact opposite of Transaction. I must admit that at first listen I was rather caught off-guard as it wasn't that next Bedhead record I had been so longing for, but it changed for me. What began as catchy tunes became songs stuck in my head all day long, shortly after that I found myself singing along. Can't wait to finally see the show.

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