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BED, "THE NEWTON PLUM"

Bed are a French group led by Benoit Burello, presumably at least thevocalist and pianist, and this is their debut for French label Icid'ailleura.
Austere is the word that immediately comes to mind whenlistening to these ten very sleepy, very subdued songs. Mildly jazzykeys, guitar, bass, strings and winds just barely blanket the spaces inand around Burello's unassuming, almost spoken word vocals (all inEnglish, best I can tell). It's all very casual, very quiet, very slow,very relaxed and, in some way I can't quite adequately explain, veryFrench. And 36 and 1/2 minutes later it's time for bed. There's not toomuch in the way of memorable melodies or lyrics really, just brieflyused or underdeveloped phrases. They're all pretty but too often theycome and go with frustrating ease, such as the way "An Itch" begins tobuild a promising groove then aborts it less than a minute later or thegorgeous piano refrain of "The Whimps" is best used in conclusion. Ohwell. C'est la Vie!

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