At a time when bands place a premium on lo-fi production values, the Beets deserve credit for taking it way too far. 2009's Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want to Be Cool had a recording quality that was shoddy to the point of self-sabotage, forgoing noisy static for a sound that suggested the band had wrapped their microphones in damp towels before pressing the "record" button on a thrift-store answering machine. Their debut was a blend of 1960s rock swagger, infectious melodies, and wry humor, becoming a minor cult hit among the DIY set and receiving both an enthusiastic rave by John Darnielle and an opening slot for his Mountain Goats on tour in 2010. Stay Home finds the band using the attention they've received as inspiration to clean up their act... a little.
While Spit in the Face-- described by the band as "a collection of 12 songs about being cool"-- executed the "cool" concept right down to its outrageously limited run of 200 physical copies and hand-drawn, Crayola-core cover art, Stay Home is (spoiler alert) "a collection of 13 new songs about staying home." "This ain't paranoia, no it's not," sing guitarist Juan Wauters and bassist Jose Garcia in unison on "Hens & Roosters", debunking any notion that the album was created by a group of Chicken Littles crouched in fear of the sky crumbling around them. But the record is very much about staying home, whether parking your behind in front of the boob tube (the raucous and charmingly amateurish "Watching TV"), hanging out with your old man ("Pops N Me"), or doing the same with the person you love ("Your Name Is on My Bones").
With delivery split between singing and barking, the relative clarity of Garcia and Wauters' voices benefit their songs greatly-- as opposed to the last album, you can almost make out the lyrics. Still, they're buried far enough in the mix that the vocals are just another instrument, equal with all other components of the songs. The near-sneer in songs like "Dead" and "Knock on Wood" nestle in perfectly with the arcane chord changes, while "Pops N Me" features call-and-response vocals that accurately replicate the comedic, exaggerated singing of 60s musicals and sitcoms. Though there have always been plenty of bands mining the same era, with reverbed vocals and drummers that don't sit down, Stay Home captures attitude and devil-may-care confidence better than most of today's bands worth their weight in Nuggets compilations.
