Pleasantly Psychedelic
Hyde & Beast is the brain child of two drummers, namely Dave Hyde of the Futureheads and Neil Bassett of The Golden Virgins and the resulting album is something of a hit and miss affair; the general tone is that of meandering, psychedelic 60s/70s inspired pop and while it's generally quite sweet and fun the meandering quality of the tracks means there are no real stand out melodies to be had.
The album very has an organic feel to it; quite experimental in tone, with some off kilter guitars and stop/start rhythms underneath the poppy tunes. Many of the tracks on "Slow Down" sound quite similar, tending to blend together and the ones that do stand out are often a bit too derivative to be interesting. 'Trees Are Falling' is a sweet track but the vocal harmonies give it too much of a "Pet Sounds" era Beach Boys feel and '(And The) Pictures In The Sky' moves along well with a foot stomping beat, distortion on the guitar and vocal oohs but it sounds exactly like T-Rex.
That's not to say the album is a bust, there are some great moments like the fantastically wonky instrumental, 'Wolfman Blues' and 'Go To Sleep' which has one of the most memorable tunes, strangely, these are the shortest two tracks on the record. "Slow Down" is a pleasant enough listen but it never really takes off, content to wash over you rather than force itself down your throat and it is very preoccupied with retro psychedelia to be hugely inspiring.