AMERICANA
BY SYLVIE SIMMONS
Sean Taylor
★★★★
The Beat Goes On
SEAN TAYLOR SONGS. CD/DL
Eleven new songs including one based on a Robert Frost poem.
Taylor’s new album finds him once again stuck at home in London, working long distance with his Austin-based producer and fellow musician Mark Hallman. But where the theme and lyrical focus of its predecessor (2021’s Lockdown) were more a socio-political take on the pandemic – selfishness, prejudice, isolationism, greed – The Beat Goes On has a sweetness to its gentle, tender tracks (lush, beautiful opener It’s Always Love; spare, voice-and-piano closer The Heart Of The Ocean) and a warmth to its more upbeat songs (Let Kindness Be Your Guide; Better Times). Its darkest moment is in the moody Lament For The Dead, with its “distant sirens and final breaths”, dusty vocals, acoustic guitar and cello, but it’s lovely too. Once again, the piano plays a big part, while there’s also some perfectly placed steel and a saxophone in the gorgeous, bluesy, nightclub title track.