‘Brand New Day’ is one of the albums in my collection that came slightly out of nowhere. I saw Beehive live at Spring Harvest many years back, but I’m sure I had this album before that. I’ve no idea why – I may have seen them at Soul Survivor beforehand.At the time, I remember thinking Beehive were one of those Christian bands that had real potential for crossing into the mainstream. Jamiroquai and The Brand New Heavies were both having success with a similar sound, and I saw no reason why Beehive couldn’t compete. Others must have thought so too – turns out they won a Mobo award for ‘Brand New Day’. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. There was no follow-up album, though I’ve no idea why this was.
Twelve years on, the album stands up pretty well. It’s slightly dated, very much a product of its time, but a lot of the tracks still sound pretty strong. Opener, ‘Fool’s Wisdom’, ‘No-One Knows’ and ‘Hype’ still sound appropriately funky. Sadly, all three of these tracks are at the beginning of the album, which skews the record somewhat. There’s god stuff later – ‘Presence of Your Love’ is a nice tune, and ‘Turn It Around’ is a gem which has stood the test of time nicely, but there’s some filler there as well. ‘Get Busy’ sounds a bit forced, and ‘Answer To Your Prayer’, while an admirable attempt to finish on a different note, just doesn’t match up to the rest of the album.
Still, it remains a promising debut, and I’m sure they’d have gone on to make a good second album if they’d stuck with it. A shame we’ll never know.
