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Apr 22, 2018
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Fleece, Voyager (Fleece Music)
When last we left this Montreal foursome (2013’s Scavenger album), they were trying to be all things to all people. The opening track was neo-stoner stuff a la Band of Skulls, and then the ingredients started to pile on, one by one: 1970s brass-pop, Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, Warlocks and wobbly hipster things jostled for position (politely of course). They certainly look like annoying vegans, but that wasn’t the point – they just wanted to rock out, to a degree, and, thank God, they’re not the token leaning-to-heavy act on Arts & Crafts Records (yet). This time out, bandleader Matthew Rogers’s lyrics are comprised of time-traveling nuggets of advice to his own closeted teen self, so there’s a slightly conceptual premise to the thing, which helps. Turns out the record doesn’t need much help, though, not if you’re a fan of Flaming Lips at their most commercially accessible – yeah, yeah, I know, but really, not only does it find some real melodic sweet spots, the songs fit together more cohesively, even when it shifts from psychedelic torch (“Under the Light”) to Beatles-infused rhumba (“On My Mind”) to spacey Winston Giles arena-indie. Very good stuff. A — Eric W. Saeger
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Summer Moon, With You Tonight (self-released)
CD Reviews: February 9. 2017
02/09/17 By Eric Saeger news@hippopress.com
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This side project from Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture could never be mistaken as a proper Strokes album, which is part of the good news. It’s certainly steeped in 1980s nostalgia, essentially a cross between early U2 and Joy Division with some woozy Beach Boys sonics going on in the vocal department, right on cue for this millennium (sort of – isn’t that Beach Boys vibe starting to smell a little moldy to you people?). But, again, the roots are definitively ’80s; if you told me this was a local band slugging it out with Mission of Burma from back in the Pleistocene age, I would have bought that bridge without hesitation, that is until the squashed-gltich intro for “Chemical,” which, although marginally cheesy, evinces a modicum of familiarity with your Pro Tools and whatnot. (Heh, there’s a Mister Roboto part in there.) Melodically decent overall, no ground broken. B — Eric W. Saeger
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