Without much fanfare, Steve Mason, one of the Britpop generation's few genuinely brilliant and original songsmiths, has been delivering on the promise of The Beta Band's 'The 3 EP's' - the masterpiece which introduced his extraordinary talent to the world. After they split up in '04, Steve went to ground in his native Fife, firing off wonderfully unconventional records under a series of pseudonyms - most prominently, King Biscuit Time and Black Affair. In a Mike Yarwood "And this is me..." type development, however, Steve's latest album, 'Boys Outside', will appear under his own name, because, he says, he's had enough of all the aliases, and because, more than ever in his life, he's comfortable in his own skin. Also, he's proud of these ten songs, whose sparse, haunting arrangements bespeak economy, maturity and focus. 'Boys Outside' is fully the equal of 'The Three EP's', packed with inventively sculpted sounds and sublime melodies, and shot through with a rare emotional honesty. At once fiercely contemporary, and unlike anything else you'll hear in 2010, the tracks on 'Boys Outside' are every bit as singular as 'The Three EP's', only now their author is a grown man, with half a life of apparent success, and private agony, behind him. Throughout his career, Mason has suffered from depression, a condition which he kept at bay with various treatments, until he underwent a course of hypnotherapy, which "completely sorted me out". The album was produced by Richard X.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Understand My Heart
2. Am I Just A Man
3. The Letter
4. Yesterday
5. Lost & Found
6. I Let Her In
7. Stress Position
8. All Come Down
9. Boys Outside
10. Hound On My Heel