Pitchfork

Here's one for the parents! Drenched in nostalgia for British bands of yore like The Kinks and The Jam, this track from The Bees' second full-length, Free the Bees, may shy away from outright theft, but intent aside, the boys still dress up like their heroes and come damn close to a first-class copyright misdemeanor. The Bees' own website boasts that this song "positively glows with the influence of Paul and Aaron's classic-vinyl collection." Unfortunately, The Bees don't compensate for their lack of ingenuity with anything even approaching wit or skill: "Horsemen" is dull, like that last request for "In the Mood" that breaks up wedding bands. The neatly harmonic chorus, "I've told you life's a worry and it's true," would better suit poor old Brian Wilson (it just wasn't made for these times), while the conventionally timed guitar solo sparkles like canned tuna. Deep within "Horsemen"'s bowels, singer Aaron Fletcher intones, "It's a good song for someone, but who's that gonna be?" Anyone seen The Big Chill? "