The culmination of several years of toil, BEDEKER’s self-titled album (released 01/10/25) captures the authentic sound of “adults in a band,” an in-joke that is nonetheless accurate. From the opening sounds of the intro track - which weaves together guitar lines and snippets of melodies that appear later in the album - the stage is set. Lyrical themes include striving to connect with a significant other (“Island”, “Over”, “Colleagues”), reflecting on what’s most important in life (“Anchor”), and wrestling with the realities of mortality (“All of Our Fathers”). Which is not to say that the music is gloomy or joyless - the songs frequently soar to the rafters, thanks to explosive arrangements and the powerful vocals of singer/guitarist Jayson Belt.

This is Belt’s first group effort since he fronted the Red West (Atlantic Records) in the early 2000s; rounding out the ensemble are drummer Adam Ferry (Plankeye, Fielding, Two Guns) bass player Eric Churchill (The Blamed), and guitar player Eric Exley (Towers, Monaco, Colored by Numbers). “I wanted to start a pop band,” Belt says, but they quickly realized that they were heading in a more aggressive direction. Their first composition together was “Honey, You Should Know” - an angular 7/4 riff that builds into a roaring chorus, spitting out, “Did you lie? / Did you try? / Or did you lay down for my beating?”

Throughout the album, the combination of intricate guitar lines and vocal hooks sets the band apart from other current guitar-rock bands. Belt and Exley have forged a songwriting partnership where they are as likely to stack on top of each other as they are to put miles of space between them. Ferry and Churchill, meanwhile, deliver a rhythm section that constantly tweaks straight-ahead rock tropes. Check out, for instance, the verses on first single “City Limits” - what could be a 4-on-the-floor beat is instead a staccato conversation between bass and drums. Elsewhere, the band employs interpolations and constantly evolving guitar lines to ensure that no two verses ever sound identical.

The album is not without breathing room; tracks such as “All of Our Fathers” and “Island” feature an almost aching tenderness, and “Over” is the ballad of the batch, with echoes of Wilco and Tom Petty. As the band keeps a laid-back beat throughout, Belt reflects on familiar dualities: “So you’re old but you still feel brand new / So you’re tired but you fight to carry on… You’re over being overwhelmed / Over being so looked over.”

Self-produced, the band was fortunate enough to enlist a couple of legends to oversee the finishing of the record: Darrell Thorp (Beck, Deep Sea Diver, Foo Fighters) mixed the album, and mastering was handled by Joe LaPorta (David Bowie, Leon Bridges, Vampire Weekend) at Sterling Sound.