Natural Self – My Heart Beats Like A Drum

October 18, 2009

Let’s get something straight: a heart beats with muscular contraction, and a drum must be beaten in order to sound. So to say that your heart beats like a drum is absurd, as well as just plain old wrong. Imagine if your heart sounded like a snare drum. That’d be rubbish. Especially on a treadmill at the gym. If each heart were a different drum sound, the world’s populace could walk around this cacophonous planet where human beings made music; a bit like one giant flashmobbing ad for a thirsty mobile phone company.

Upon hearing the title track of Nathaniel Pearn’s second album for uber-hip Brighton-based label Tru Thoughts, the insipid line “My heart beats like a drum, the drum is like my heart,” got stuck in my throat as I gagged on its amateurish, rambling incoherency. Unfortunately, things get worse as Pearn and co-vocalist Elodie Rama bang on about giving us soul as the drum runs through their veins. Pardon me, while I vomit upon your unborn children.

That said, Pearn graciously supplies a mere three opportunities to hang himself, and it’s on the entirely dreadful ‘Every Day’ dedicated to “All the makers, the beat-breakers, the risk-takers, the soul shakers,” along with “All the people who keep it tight, keep it right and keep it moving along,” where the noose squeezes most of the life out of the record. Sorry, but is this 1989?  The lyric sounds like something from a Right Said Fred record, but delivered with less bald charm.

Back in the real world, and Pearn’s remaining instrumental tracks are, thankfully, a mix of inoffensive, downbeat melodies that rely on a workable combination of sweeping basslines, atmospheric twinkles and pleasing horn arrangements. Allowing himself to get swept up with nostalgic memories of jazzy boom-bap hip-hop, ‘My Heart Beats Like A Drum’ becomes an enjoyable Sunday afternoon record, particularly when Pearn bans himself from the vocal booth and delivers grouped three-part female harmonies at will, and just allows the music to do the talking. Like a drum.

(3/5)

Natural Self album preview

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Posted in Music Reviews