Summer is right around the corner, so it’s only fitting I do a review of one of the best summer albums: Beats and Breaks from the Flower Patch by Kitty Craft. Released in 1998, Beats and Breaks is Kitty Craft’s debut album. She has released a handful of albums and EP’s since dropping Beats and Breaks, but none of those have garnered tons of attention.
The track list spans 13 songs over 40 minutes, which is fairly standard length. There are so many hits on Beats and Breaks, with some of my favorites being “Par 5,” “Inward Jam,” “Locked Groove,” “Caught High,” and “Leaves Your Breath (Bonus Track).”
I absolutely love this album. There isn’t anything better to listen to when I’m having a bad day and need to be reminded of all the good times ahead of me. Beats and Breaks is best described as a combination of ‘70s soft rock and hip hop, forming something that’s adjacent to lo-fi.
Beats and Breaks does an amazing job at combining cheerful twee-like vocals with calming, mellow instrumentation. It’s such a feel-good album that will never fail to get you into a good mood.
The most notable success of this album is its agreeability. No matter what kind of music someone listens to, there is no doubt in my mind that everyone can find at least 1 song that they enjoy. Kitty Craft does such an amazing job at making you associate her music with positive memories, and I think that’s what makes it so interesting to listen to. Everyone will interact with the music in their own way, but the overall feeling is nothing short of pure happiness.
The only thing that I don’t really enjoy about this album is how certain songs/parts of the album can feel repetitive as each song relies heavily on sampling to create its melodies/atmosphere, but for the majority of the album it’s not really a problem. Of the 13 songs on Beats and Breaks, there’s only around 2–4 that I don’t love, and that doesn’t mean they’re bad songs by any means.
On paper this album may not seem super sonically interesting or life changing, but above all else music is about how it makes you feel, and this album can make you feel great. If you haven’t listened to it already, I would recommend doing so with all my heart, especially on a super fun, warm summer day.
I’ll give Beats and Breaks from the Flower Patch an incredibly respectable 8.6/10.
