Album Review

  • Review

Motorpsycho, Here Be Monsters, album review

Norwegian psychedelicists Motorpsycho execute their psych-rock workouts with Scandinavian polish and rigour on Here Be Monsters, a concept album (of course!) about psychological distress. The methodical guitar progressions of “Lacuna/Sunrise” and “Running with Scissors” are pitched between Mogwai and Pink Floyd, building elegantly and unthreateningly – which is fine, except the lyrics deal with darker matters. In “Lacuna/Sunrise”, the protagonist’s personality dissolves until only shame remains; “Big Black Dog”, meanwhile, wrestles with depression for 18 minutes without conveying emotional turmoil. Here and in “IMS” (an acronym for “Inner Mounting Shame”), the lyrics sound like they’re being negotiated, rather than expressed, while the music, for all its pleasing West Coast and Brit-psych affinities, lacks the risk and edge that made Sixties psychedelia such a thrill-ride.

  • Review

Fay Hield, Old Adam, album review

Save for a Tom Waits song in the traditional mode, Old Adam comprises old folk material in spruced-up new arrangements, offering a kaleidoscopic view of storytelling through the centuries. Fay Hield’s singing throughout is open and honest, delivering the stories unencumbered by needless ornament or moralising. The most familiar are probably “Raggle Taggle Gypsy” and “Jack Orion”, twin tales of sexual deception where carefree carelessness is conveyed by sprightly banjo-picking and dervish fiddling, respectively. But the oldest and most intriguing is “The Hag In The Beck”, an enchantment tale of spooky circularity set to the eerie squeak and drone of fiddles. By contrast, the drolly philosophical title-track describes Adam’s life as free from worry  or fear, but wonders where, without danger and temptation, lies his nobility?

More headlines