posted 10/03/2008 (Fri) @ 08:00 am
>>> Music Reviews
Darker My Love - 2 (2008)
Psychedelic / Shoegaze / Retro Pop
They’ve got me talking words…
- Northern Soul
- Blue Day
- Two Ways Out
- Pale Sun
- White Composition
- Add One To The Other One
- Even In Your Lightest Day
- All The Hurry & Wait
- Waves
- Talking Words
- Immediate Undertaking
“If something looks familiar, something is wrong,” Darker My Love inform us atop a dingy wash of fuzzbox slag paired to shimmery clean, ’shroomed-out arpeggios. Those familiar with psychedelia will immediately bond with their new record 2, which tightropes the line between sunny, harmonized Beatles pop (”White Composition”) and the ever-present wall-of-sound distortion quilt so loved by shoegazers (”Two Ways Out,” “Pale Sun”), swooning and occasionally falling completely into one or the other.
Enamoured less of the inscrutable haze of My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive, Darker My Love’s hunger for noisy walls of sound strays closer to the Swervedriver school of shoegaze. Tracks like the pumping, organ-spattered, “American Woman”-ish “Blue Day” and its distorted swirl start things nice and loud, paving the road for spacier jams like the Pink Floyd meets The Doors echoes of “Add One To The Other One.”
The band seem to be set on recording a ’60s psych-rock primer for today’s indie kids: later, “Waves” takes it to the other side with conjured images of flower children monkey-dancing on the set of a Speed Racer cartoon, while the standout scuzzy anthem “Talking Words” soars on booming, throaty fuzzchords, Creamy “woman tone” leads and resplendent waterfalls of organ.
A lustful attitude toward their fuzz pedals which swings between love and perversion, cloudy-behind-the-eyes lyrics and the very inclusion of a (well-utilized, for once!) organ all point to one thing: this is some peachy keen retro hippie rock. Extra rad points for the blooming harmonies, and for featuring vocals that actually take discernable form, shape and direction.
RIYL Secret Machines, The Misteriosos, drugs.
Tags: beatles, best of 2008 candidates, harmonies, pop, psychedelia, shoegaze, vocals, wall of sound
