The Bobby Holidays' At The Beach opens with the song Jane, syncopation is to the fore with a great horn section blowing against bass, drums and guitar. The song has an up tempo happy summer vibe. The horn section highlights its skill in an excellent solo.
Second track, When She Comes feels a bit like The Bats meets The Byrds, opens with a four on the floor beat. Lyrically it plays on the classic "She’ll be coming round the mountain..", but the music is so excellently put together, and it is enough of a reworking, that it is completely forgivable.
Song three Alcohol, is another up-tempo funk inspired number with the horns to the front again with more highly skilled playing. Alcohol’s words are about regret.
On the fourth track, Don’t Worry Baby, it’s back to Dunedin in the 1980's, jangling guitars and excellent vocal harmonies. The latter part of this song slides in to ska.
There are definitely a couple of different song writing styles present in The Bobby Holidays on At The Beach.
By song 7, The Alamo, there is a familiar format to the songs. The structure is familiar across all the songs on the album.
Title track, At The Beach, sums up the band really well; musically it's very fun, up tempo and playful. There’s no mistaking the band would be excellent to see live.
Milky Way is slower with the band leaning into a version of reggae similar to later period Beach Boys.
The closing song End of The Rainbow is another slower number like the last song of the night, the slow dance as it were.
At The Beach is an album which grows on the listener, but has immediate charm on first listen too. There are definite 1960's influences all over the LP, band names like Beatles and Byrds come to mind, and I’m sure I can hear at least one Rickenbacker guitar on the recording, and there sounds like some Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, influence, along with more than a hint of Roger McGuinn.
Good album gents.
The Bobby Holidays formed mid lockdown 2020 as a studio band to record the songs singer/songwriter Robert ‘Bobby’ Werry had been playing at Darren McShane’s open mic at The Clare Inn. The band clicked instantly abandoning the demo mentality and instead releasing the recordings on a self-titled album, playing live to launch their debut in December 2020.
Covid played its hand and the band managed only a few more live dates during 2021, and 2022, but time between lockdowns was used to get back to Earwig Studios and At the Beach is the result. The second album in two years with the title track At the Beach also the new single and video.
The Bobby Holidays have developed into an exciting live band with a driving rhythm section and honkin’ brass giving a bedrock to Bobby’s jangling guitar and thoughtful lyrics. This album captures the magic, recording all analogue live to 2 inch tape, faithful to the bands natural sound and with a nod to the British pub rock of the 1970’s.