File Under: Folk/Rock rating: B+ tracks 1. Mad River 2. Better Now 3. The Beauty In Store 4. Did You Know? 5. Eleven Again 6. Experiments In Love 7. God's Tears 8. I Wanted Too Much 9. Where Are You? 10. What Is That To Me? 11. When We Were Friends 12. Trash Like This related links Beaver Nelson

Austin singer/soundwriter Beaver Nelson returns with a strong third release, Undisturbed. This album is definitely a theme album. No necessarily a concept album, but there is a theme to the songs, the constant moving of time and the urgency of doing something with time.

Nelson did some songwriting experimentation with this record. He only allowed himself to write a few parts a day or a week of each song as to make sure he got as many views as possible into a song without being caught up in a moment. This did wonders for the lyrics on this record. All of his songs are meaningful, but these tracks go to the next plateau and paint some brilliant pictures for the listener. Something rarely accomplished in the music world today.

The music on this album isn’t near as catchy as that of his previous release, Little Brother. Nothing has changed with the band, but in the end, the urgency of these songs make the use of hooks seem less important. Undisturbed is more of a stripped down rock sound than the bar music of the past releases. Nelson has definitely grown as a person and a songwriter in the past year or so and it shows on this album.

Undisturbed is definitely one of the better albums I've heard this year and actually has a theme that follows it's songs that isn't just drinking beer or losing a girlfriend. Beaver is a little more deep than that.

Samuel Barker is Senior Editor. Contact him at suma@rockzone.com.

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