Beaumont - This is...

Keith Girdler and Paul Stewart cemented their place in pop history with BLUEBOY and ARABESQUE. Now they glide more elegantly over the surface of life. They embellish and ennoble their characteristic sound with a cosmopolitan attitude and the flair of the latin sun-drenched culture. After the disintegration of Blueboy Siesta presents a world exclusive, a nostalgic trip to the elegant life and the easy pleasures of Beaumont with adaptable morals and intricate reasoning. The Englishness of Beaumont is obvious. There is an undeniable link with the land of the Ealing comedies, The Smiths, Derek Jarman, the Carry on series, and El records. Paradoxically what makes this record fascinating and enduring is the sheer emotional and conceptual appeal. There is a special temperamental quality that imbues everything. Call it passion or flair, two attributes normally associated with the Spanish, Italian or even French artists. Can geography be mixed with psychologies or with aesthetics? Absolutely. Anyway, the repertoire contains the introspective moods that Blueboy disclosed on their Sarah/Shinkansen releases and the charming vignettes of Arabesque on Siesta. Love and charm. Both are similar and complementary. One intensifies the other. Keith Girdler invests emotion in every note he sings with his refined diction. His murmuring voice and the sonic finesse of Paul Stewart’s smooth guitars are a landmark of their light jazz-pop. The sultry and sunny voice of Jo complements the seduction of the perfectly arranged songs. The lyricism pictures postcards and memories of London (Camden Town, Leicester Square…), furtive loves, licit or illicit dreams, school years, the 80s, …and a garden of Eden with seagulls, sun, rain, rainbows and of course… champagne. Even sorrow becomes precious. Beaumont could be a character that lives opulently and rents a palazzo in Venice on the Canal Grande like Lord Byron, Wagner or Cole Porter to achieve a musical state of grace. Maybe he is a person of outstanding stature in many fields washing away his sins. Beaumont renews the thrills of his adolescence and is only servile to sentiment. He belongs to an imaginary beau monde with Aretha Franklin, Picasso, The Monochrome Set, Orange Juice, Belle and Sebastian, Dionne Warwick, Go-Betweens and Brigitte Bardot. Back to reality. Delicious and resonant from start to finish, "This is Beaumont" is like a romance under the stars. Sublime.