eat Mark
Howls of Joy
Ample Play
Street: 02.19
Beat Mark = Stone Roses + Sea Pony 
France’s Beat Mark invoke the lazy, Brit-pop sound of the mid-80s with their debut album, Howls of Joy, 13 rushed tracks that leave much to be desired in the world of tone and song structure. The opening track, “What I Want The Most,” is a two-minute, incessant guitar strumming, high-end heavy track that seems to be lacking any specific direction. Julien Perez’s  vocals create a mopey fog that gets little relief from the sweet but self-conscious harmonies of Gaëtan Didelot and Chloé Labaye. The simple garage band sound is easy to confuse for an intentional noise-pop sound, but the shy vocals and absence of variation in song structure hint at a lack of organization. I got absolutely no feeling out of this album, but I did wake up at 5 a.m. with “Son Thomas Hunter” stuck in my head—a throwback to the easy, breezy surf sound of the Beach Boys that is tolerable, but anything but new and refreshing. –Darcy Wouters-Russell