Steve Mason - 'Boys Outside' (Double Six Records) Released 10/05/10

After the pilot projects of Steve Mason under the monikers King Biscuit Time and the electronic Black Affair, Mason's returns with 'Boys Outside', an album he describes as that which The Beta Band would be making about now if they were still together. If... Time + personalities and the collision of egos with a smattering of drugs will put paid to the potential of even the most likely bands, or reunions. Fortunately for us there's The Aliens under Gordon Anderson's mad captain command of the spaceship, skittering the cosmos. And here, Steve Mason with an articulate and honest album shedding his torchlight into the hidden crevasses of his psyche and delivering the triumphant slice of future pop that his resurrection always promised.

'Boys Outside' sets out the promise and delivers under the production nouse of Richard X. With Mason's voice redolent of the hazy days of The Beta Band and Animals-era Pink Floyd, 'Boys Outside' could be the swan-song for cracked relationships, the survival tale of a patched up soul, and the sick note of the strung-out. 'Am I Just A Man' finds Mason ruminating whether he's "...just a man in love, or am I boy a man out of touch..." articulating the distance between communication, while 'The Letter' packs the punches with a celestial ambiance as a love lost strikes home. With bluesy riffs, hip speak, beats and electric piano, 'Lost & Found' is the album stand-out. A touch Moby-esque to be true, but like a phoenix out of the ashes, it's a bouncy soundtrack to our impending summer swelter.

Rumbling with dance-floor leanings, 'Understand My Heart' is moderne, sequencered pop with the familiar chords of Talk Talk's 'Life's What You Make It', and 'Yesterday' may have Mason sounding the morose bugger with talk of yesterday is worse than the day before kindathing, but the balaeric electric piano and a moody b-line make it sound like Massive Attack on sunshine and MDMA. 'All Come Down', meanwhile, is one of those magical Screamadelica-tinged songs that feels epical yet 70's at the same time.

'I Let Her In' is almost too painful to listen to - spartan and opiated, yet textured with nuance and funereal keys, it's Mason's most articulate moment and is deeply touching with reflections of loss and regret, singing - "...and when I pay no mind to all the broken dreams, I say I'll never fall in love again". The titular 'Boys Outside' is a survival tale with Mason singing "...some darker part will always love you, but don't send no note..." whilst managing to sound anthemic while talking of life's bitter truths, it's a balancing act that resonates throughout the album.

Stocking-filler moments come too with the digi-pop of 'Stress Position' where the albums drama feels diminished, but it finishes on a high note with the Floyd-eqsue X Primal Scream cross-pollination. And with 'Boys Outside', Steve Mason has bridged the abyss between Beta Band promise and artistic delivery. A frothy tankyard award!