PHANEROTHYME

Immediately after the release of Let Them Eat Cake, Motorpsycho would start work on their next album, continuing on with their more psychedelic rock efforts. As heterogeneous as the band is, their next effort, while keeping true to their new sound and stylizations, would be a lot different than what may be expected. Where Let Them Eat Cake was their tribute to old progressive rock bands from the 70s, this album feels like a tribute to the 60s psych rock era lead by groups like The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, and The Doors. This results in the creation of Phanerothyme.

Phanerothyme, to me, is the perfection of that psychedelic pop rock sound that Let Them Eat Cake gave us. Each song here gives off this great mix of jam rock, neo psychedelia that bands like King Gizz and Thee Oh Sees would inevitably use later in the 21st century, sunshine pop, and rockabilly, creating for a very jovial sounding album. Songs like B.S. and The Slow Phaseout give off these styles very prominently, and I really love that about this album. It is insanely varied across the board and creates for a unique take on the Motorpsycho stylings.

There are also slower winded songs, which I think are nice. These songs are a lot more folk and acoustic in vein, kinda like Bob Dylan or Neal Young. When You're Dead and Bedroom Eyes are good songs in the retrospect of slower, more methodical movements. The band really does allow themselves to take a step back from the jamming and embrace their more procrastinating side. Unfortunately I find these slower songs to be not the best when compared to the more jammy songs. I feel as though they put far more time in their jams rather than these slower movements, and that is quite a shame since they could really make this album a five star masterpiece if they put a tiny bit more into their slower movements. Luckily these slow songs are only really in the second half of the record (besides Bedroom Eyes) after Go to California.

Speaking of which, I love, love, LOVE, Go to California. This is a fabulous tribute to The Beach Boys and their psychedelic pop sound from the late 60s. The nod and wink to California is the clear indication, but the rhythm, and the instrumentation makes this sound like a clear cut tribute to that sunny band from Cali. You get tastes of the more surf rock sound with some of the guitar strums, the more psychedelic flavorings with the use of more abstract stylizations, and the clear focus of jamming that The Beach Boys can lightly do when need be. This is my favorite song off the album, and I think it deserves a ton of love and praise from both progheads and popheads as it stands to be a wonderful tribute to Brian Wilson's work with The Beach Boys.

As it stands, Phanerothyme is an interesting, and really well made psychedelic effort from Motorpsycho. Tributes to The Beach Boys and the psychedelic sounds of the 60s, a lot of focus on jamming and creating a grooving atmosphere, and a great hippie vibe that makes this album feel as though it was made in the 60s but suddenly time traveled into the 2000s. It is one of the band's most solid, and memorable efforts from their 2000s works. Highly recommend it, especially for fans of bands like Jefferson Airplane, and Procol Harum.