This lovely slice of gentle guitar acoustica from Canadian singer/songwriter Howie Beck is laid-back and reassuring, heart-warming background music for lazy, hazy days.
Lead track Don't Be Afraid is helped along by backing vocals from Ed Harcourt, and while any fans of Harcourt's are likely to approve of what they find here, Howie doesn't need celebrity endorsement to stand on his own two feet: both the lead track and its follow-up Alice would be worth the price of admission no matter who was helping him out. The summer bandstand trumpets in particular are a beautiful touch.
Against all odds, the real gem on the package is his cover of The Strokes' Reptilica. Stranger bedfellows are hard to imagine but he takes the song and turns its 'Please don’t slow me down if I'm going too fast' lyrics on their head. You couldn't slow him down any more if you tried, and you'd no more want to make him speed up than you'd have ever thought you wanted to see the Strokes turned into a gentle acoustic late night lullaby. How does the boy makes it work? Simple: he’s a genius.
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