Beulah: Yoko : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Beulah's fourth album was recorded the same year that four members of this Bay Area indie-rock band broke up with their girlfriends and wives (the title, Yoko, may not so coincidentally reference a certain woman whose name has been associated with band breakups). Beulah do more than cry into their beer, though: Tracks such as "Landslide Baby" present the nuanced evolution of an ailing relationship in the form of conversations between lovers figuring out what went wrong. The band has tossed some of the sunny pop of 2001's The Coast Is Never Clear, paring down some of the horn-happy melodies that have defined their style, but their songs are still bright and elegant. "Your Mother Loves You Son" matches powerhouse pop rock with frontman Miles Kurosky's mournful, aching lyrics. On "A Man Like Me," he admits he's "a man gone wrong" but begs, "Try wasting all your days on a man like me." With Yoko, Beulah make up for the breakups with the most personal album of their career.

AMELIA MCDONELL-PARRY
(RS 932, October 2, 2003)