Andrew Cranston: Waiting For The Bell

After nearly over a decade and four albums, Beta Radio’s Ben Mabry and Brent Holloman decided to see other people. The duo’s new album Waiting for the End to Come marks the first time they’ve worked with other songwriters. During a writing retreat in Nashville the two friends shared a creative experience that bordered on the spiritual. If 2021’s Year of Love is about searching for language, answers and love – Waiting for the End to Come is about finding it. The songs are grounded in a physicality that’s gorgeously set against the sonic wall of acoustic guitars, strings, and the harmonies for which Beta Radio has become so well known.Over the years, American Songwriter has claimed the band is “evoking serenity” and “emit an incandescent optimism.” The praise is both heady and ethereal, much like the band’s previous albums, many of which are dominated by gorgeous, yet restless musical energy. But on this album, that energy is underpinned and supported by the broad shoulders of narrative-driven songwriting that feels urgent, tactile, and resonant. Every song on Waiting for the End to Come feels like a radio song, no small feat for a band with such an expansive sound, a band that routinely reaches emotional heights while soaring on mystical themes.On Waiting for the End to Come, Beta Radio is not on the verge of something new. They are in the midst of it, and it is wonderful to be there with them.

76 track deluxe 4CD clamshell box set containing the original albums ‘New Clear Days’ and ‘Magnets’ plus B-sides & single versions. Includes 2CDs of previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, alternative and live versions featuring their performance from The Rainbow on 3rd December 1979. Featuring three songs ‘Move’, ‘Secret Noise’ and ‘Caroline’ that have never officially previously been released. Formed in 1978 and “discovered” by The Jam’s Bruce Foxton and managed by Paul Weller’s Dad John they signed to United Artists in 1979, their second single ‘Turning Japanese’ becoming an enormous international hit reaching number three in the UK and number one in Australia. It was also a major hit in New Zealand, Canada and reached No. 36 in the US single charts.

Joe, a 35-year-old advertising copywriter for a slick New York company, feels disillusioned with his life. Soon he starts dreaming of a mysterious man and, not long after, begins seeing him on the street and hearing his voice. The voice overwhelms Joe and he starts to listen to it, camping out on the front steps of his stoop, waiting for instructions. The media take note. And soon he has become a story, a media sensation, the centre of a storm.