Punk, metal and working class rock ‘n’ roll have a long established history as critical anti-establishment structures. When the world is going to shit, we’ll always have musos clad in black leather, spikes, or nothing at all to tell the masses what they’re being succumbed to, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Ivan Beecroft is due to release his new album Whatever this November, and it promises 11 whole tracks of that same uncompromising mentality, a fierce voice against the powers that be, spitting everything they’re accountable for back in their faces.
A vicious amalgam of Aussie rock structures, punk vivacity and doomish attitude, Whatever by Ivan Beecroft is a new anthem for the powerless.
The album opens with Sleepwalker, the title being a jab at the masses tranquillised by modern media. It rises against that widespread deceit with a pub rock core and a particularly vicious lyrical thread; if you haven’t figured it out yet, Beecroft is angry about a few things.
You Can’t Take My Soul is one of the stronger tracks on the album, steeped in 1970s stadium rock elements and Beecroft’s fundamental dissociation with our state of affairs.
Taking notes far and wide, everything from reality TV to President Eisenhower to The Shawshank Redemption feed into this track in one way or another. Yet rather than becoming as overwhelming as that sounds, You Can’t Take My Soul is an effective amalgam of its own influence, where each aspect strengthens the next rather than overpowering it.
Believe, the lead single from Whatever, was likely chosen for its more thumpy rhythm section and a couple of catchy piano lines. Beecroft’s vocals stand proudly at the head of the mix, one of the record’s only ventures into love song territory. It tackles the uncertainty which comes with every relationship, the desperation which can seep into a lover’s soul and the utterly lost feeling we’re confronted with when a fling comes to its end.
A persistant organ backing, echoey guitar interludes and dystopian lyrical work point clearly towards Pink Floyd as the main influence in Ordinary Man. This slower, waltzing rhythm goes on to pervade final track One Last Goodbye, a potent ode to Beecroft’s late father. It’s an emotional footnote to Whatever, an album that above all, was something truly honest.
On his newest record Ivan Beecroft stays true to his roots, avoiding any of the posturing, self-promotion or general bullshit associated with the upper echelons of modern, business-oriented music. In a word, it’s refreshing.
Whatever is available November 9th.
