Night Beats

★★★ Myth Of A Man HEAVENLY. CD/DL/LP

Nashville excursion changes Texans’ scene on fourth LP.

Somebody has taken a feather duster to the corners of Night Beats’ latest album after the webbed and greasy garage of 2013’s Sonic Bloom and 2016’s Who Sold My Generation. Myth Of A Man feels cleaner and brighter, frontman Danny Lee Backwell’s songs glinting with new light. Yet as Cubanheeled R&B freakouts There She Goes and Eyes On Me show, their songs have not become sterile or sanitised, just sharper-edged, slicker in purpose. Nashville-recorded with Black Key Dan Auerbach and a seasoned session team, these songs are all about the sharp, soulful detailing – the satiny backing vocals of Footprints, the robust organ of Let Me Guess – an expertly stitched backdrop for Backwell’s impeccably jaded vocals. Myth Of A Man doesn’t feel like the whole story yet, but it’s getting there.