Beat Torture

Edward Ball’s vision of rock and roll as processing any number of feelings and styles kept on keeping on with Beat Torture, The Times’s debut for Creation Records and in a way a kind of summary and skew-whiff parody of the label’s aesthetics: there’s indie jangling on “Heaven Sent Me An Angel,” sitar-tinged psych on “Chelsea Green,” stomping glam on “How To Start Your Own Country” and screaming mania on “Godevil.” Above all else it’s just Ball’s forthright way around writing and performing instant singalong choruses; “I’ll Be Your Volunteer” is a great example.