Motorpsycho - Yay! CD
SKU
Psychobabble 130
The very very long lived band that is Motorpsycho have changed their spots many many times and this is not what most probably think of as a typical Motorpsycho release.
Having said that, the very first Motorpsycho album I ever heard was their orchestral pop release, Let Them Eat Cake and this has a lot of sonic similarities in terms of song craft, although it lacks some of the orchestral qualities. I like it!!
"Between 2017 and 2021, Norway's Motorpsycho released the sprawling "Gullvåg Trilogy," consisting of 2017's double album The Tower, 2019's The Crucible, and 2020's The All Is One (also a double), which hosted cover paintings by Håkon Gullvåg. During quarantine, they rearranged, edited, expanded, and recorded the trilogy's leftover music for 2021's double-length Kingdom of Oblivion. 2022's Ancient Astronauts' offered pandemic-era collaborations with theater troupes. Yay! is a response to all that activity. It offers shorter, hookier, less deliberately progressive songs rife with acoustic guitars, hand percussion and congas, and vocal harmonies. After converting their rehearsal space into a makeshift studio, the band recorded reams of songs. Hearing a potential album in them, they invited Reine Fisk(Dungen, Träd, Gräs och Stenar, etc.) in to produce and mix. Offered creative carte blanche, he enlisted Dungen bandmate Fredrik Swahn as engineer -- they also contribute instrumentally. Given Fiske's love of psychedelia, these ten Bent Sæther songs are drenched in its textural production tenets. The album also signifies the final outing for drummer Tomas Järmyr, who joined in 2017, leaving Saether and Hans Magnus Ryan as Motorpsycho's sole members.
Opener "Cold & Bored" commences with layers of strummed, major-key acoustic guitars ringed with violin (Fiske), glockenspiel, and Mellotron; its lyrics balance disappointment and unfilled promises with hope, as the summery Mediterranean rhythm and melody is all sunshine. The gorgeous vocal harmonies in "Sentinels'" float between those influenced by Crosby, Stills & Nash and the spacier approach of Love. The jaunty "Dank State" reflects the aftermath of the pandemic in a joyous anthem of accountability: "Fed up with conspiracies and lies/Dank State, you have been rejected...how sweet it is to see you on your way. "W.C.A." (What Comes After) follows lyrically asking necessary questions atop an optimistic musical frame of jangling guitars, upbeat chorus vocals, and Mellotron. The set's outlier is the seven-plus-minute "Hotel Daedalus." A winding, episodic, midtempo prog rock jam, its sonic drift is laden with rumbling, distorted basses, slide guitar atmospherics from Fiske, Ryan's spiky electric leads, overdriven keys, and buoyant strings from Josefin Runsteen. The lyrics reference the fear and confusion of the pandemic before the song evolves -- musically and thematically -- into a dreamy promise of hope after its explosive midsection. Closer "The Rapture" is almost rapturous in its beauty and optimism. Layered acoustic guitars are framed by a bumping bassline, sweeping strings, and organic percussion, denoting the passage of seasons literally and metaphorically. Cold, isolation, and darkness give way to light, possibility, and communal renewal. Its explosive final two minutes are transcendent. With its evocative cover art (Pavement's Wowee Zowee anyone?), songwriting, production, and inspired performances, Yay! is a lighter, breezier side of Motorpsycho's persona that should delight fans of the band's early indie rock. But Yay! is not actually retro, nor less lyrically provocative or musically adventurous. It is, simply, the latest necessary creative gambit from these sonic psychonauts."-Allmusic
- LabelStickman
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