by capsize
10. September 2008 02:56
Fuzzed guitars, harmonies and dreamy pop flashbacks
This is the Asteroid No.4’s fifth full length album and as such it builds on and cements a musical ethos that takes its influences from bands such as Pink Floyd (’69), The Rain Parade, Love, Hawkwind ( a dash only), The Screaming Trees, Spiritualised, The Byrds and even some Beach Boys.
These boys (and girl) love their sixties psychedelia, there are big tunes and bigger choruses all submerged in layered guitars and lashings of reverb. Songs such as ‘Hold On’ are so familiar that the game becomes spot the source ( in this case Sympathy for the Devil).
Repeated listens reward and disappoint in equal measure as harmonies become clearer and tunes more evocative but they also reveal a default setting in the songwriting which draws the songs back to a familiar pattern which eventually leads to sense of repetition rather than cohesion. However this may be nitpicking, there is much to enjoy in this reverb sodden wonderland.
The stately majesty of ‘War’, the title track’s beautiful harmonies and sunny swooning rhyme with its perfect sense of time and place ( 1968 Stonehenge!), ‘She Touched the Sky’ with its fractured noodling and floating vocals.
The next Paisley revolution starts here!
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