MOTORPSYCHO

You know, I didn't expect them to release a new album this early in the year, since usually it happens much later. That said, who cannot complain about a new Motorpsycho release? It's basically tradition at this point. Last year with Neigh!!, I felt like that album was likable, but certainly a step down from what the band had made prior. However, I was still cautiously optimistic when it came down to their next album. Keyword cautious, cause I didn't quite know if they'll double down on what they had on Neigh!!, or go to richer endeavors. Oh boy how glad I was when this dropped, because along with it came my caution crumbling down into just pure optimism.

Motorpsycho's...Motorpsycho (It feels weird to say the band's name twice when the album is named after themselves) is probably their first big BIG release in a long while, since The All Is One. Big, as in a masterpiece! Been a hot minute since Motorpsycho made peak like this again, and boy howdy is it incredible!

Despite having a career spanning over 34 years, they still manage to make some very original music, and honestly this record feels like a manifesto of all their great moments bundled into one package.

For example, you get some really fun and trippy psych rock tunes with tracks like Laird Of Heimly and Dead Of Winter. Motorpsycho's psych rock movements are always really strong no matter the album, and this recent endeavor is no exception. Y'all know how much I love those psych rock/pop tunes they made during their more extensive psychedelic workouts in their albums from the early 2000s, and the psychedelic tracks off this record are like a modern example of what they had done during those days.

Honestly, shoutout to Stanley (Tonight's the Night) especially, cause that song has a structure that gives me Go To California vibes. Obviously a lot shorter, but that guitar solo at the end felt very much like something that could come from Phanerothyme.

Though, the real treat here is the progressive rock. While on the Neigh!! review, I did say that I didn't really jive with the band stepping back into more proggy familiar grounds, I do think them doing it on here is a lot more acceptable, mostly because, well, it sounds fresh! Whenever I listen to songs like The Comeback, or Three Frightened Monkeys, my mind wonders how they can still manage to push the progressive rock envelope to new heights. The prog songs honestly sound like a mix between the harder edges of The Crucible or Heavy Metal Fruit, with some of the more jammy sides of Little Lucid Moments and Still Life With Eggplant.

Oh yeah, speaking of jams, this record has a prog epic! Been a bit since we've seen a proper 20 minute Motorpsycho score. Neotzar (The Second Coming) is just superb honestly, certainly a highlight for me and for most people as well. I mean, they never really missed on an epic, aside from that one time with Jaga Jazzists, but even still who cannot complain about a properly amazing Motorpsycho jam? It's creepy, it's weird, but I think Neotzar is one of the best tracks Motorpsycho has made in a long while.

Honestly all the long songs here are highlights for me. Lucifer Bringer of Light is such a good opening, especially how the band implemented more krautrock grooves into it. Gave me some really strong Amon Düül II vibes, which I think is always appreciated. Cannot go wrong with some good ol' psychedelic infused repetition.

But also, one of the real top of the line songs on here has to be Balthazaar. When I first heard it, specifically the intro with that crunchy, almost video game-esque tune at the start, I already knew that we were so back. I am listening to the song right now as a matter of fact, and it still hits as hard as it did when I heard it the first time. I can already tell that I will listen to this track more times than I can count this year. It's just too good honestly, almost addicting.

However, I think one of the strongest highlights, in fact maybe it is the strongest, is Kip Satie. Now, you may be asking, why Kip Satie? Well, while it's certainly not my favorite track on here, hell I'd say it and Bed of Roses are the weakest here, it was the track that made me realize something...no matter what Motorpsycho will still be Motorpsycho.

Now that may sound obvious, but hear me out. While it's true that pretty much every band under the sun changes things up every once and a while, maybe every new album if you're lucky, I find that Motorpsycho still always felt like themselves even with lineup and musical changes.

Even if they make long winded prog rock jams, they're still Motorpsycho.

Even if they make live albums that have excessive noise complaints, they're still Motorpsycho.

Even if they make ambient albums for imaginary films, they're still Motorpsycho.

Even if they do country covers of their own songs, they're still Motorpsycho.

Even if they do hardcore and sludgy grunge music. They're. Still. MOTORPSYCHO.

That is why I think this record is simply called Motorpsycho. Motorpsycho will forever be Motorpsycho. Whether it be on Lobotomizer, or here and now, Motorpsycho will always be Motorpsycho. They're a band that infinitely changes, like a butterfly that has phoenix mechanics. No matter the album, no matter the song, no matter the momentum, Motorpsycho will still make songs that FEEL like Motorpsycho, because they are Motorpsycho.

I suppose Motorpsycho, with Motorpsycho, is Motorpsycho. All as one, as it should be. Anyways yeah this album is pretty good you should check it out or something.

Best tracks: Lucifer Bringer of Light, Stanley (Tonight's the Night), The Comeback, Bathahaazar, Neotzar (The Second Coming), Three Frightened Monkeys

"Worst" tracks (but they're still pretty good): Kip Satie, Bed of Roses

And then there were two: the Psychonauts' two founding members . . . and a bunch of hired hands. The realities of the modern way of making and publishing music has finally dawned on Bent and Hans.

Disc 1 (40:49) 1. "Lucifer, Bringer of Light" (10:49) off to the races we go straight from the first frame--especially with metronomic JAKI LEIBZEIT-like drummer Ingvald Vassbø in the driver's seat. The harmonies on the team vocals are rather weak, even discordant at times. The song's chord structure is fairly straightforward with only a few interesting bridges or instrumental passages. The WHO "Baba O'Riley"-like third minute starts off interestingly but then devolves into a fairly straightforward ALLMAN BROTHERS-like guitar solo--and then slightly more interesting LYNYRD SKYNYRD-like duet/duel. This goes on until the ninth minute when the boys try to come back to a slightly-more sophisticated (and infinitely more interesting) variation on the opening theme for more vocals. (17.5/20) 2. Laird of Heimly (3:54) 3. Stanley (Tonight's the Night) (4:10) 4. The Comeback (4:32) 5. Kip Satie (2:25) 6. Balthazaar" (11:40) bug-buzz-saw playing around until Krautrock motif steps into play at the 0:56 mark (with a bass line that is a variation on the famous "Peter Gunn" riff). The team vocals are okay, melodic and smooth, I just don't know (or care) what they're singing about. Guitar solos with a variety of guitar sounds (one very Allman Brothers-like). Halfway into the song I'm finding the motif to be more annoying than hypnotic, this despite all the different guitar sounds and the addition in the sixth minute of piano chord hits. A turn given to synths for solos in the seventh minute provide a little diversion/relief but then we're right back into the rut for the next vocal section in the eighth minute. Around the eight-minute mark the band shifts a little (mostly drummer Ingvald Vassbø's drum beat and style) and then synthesized guitar takes off for the next solo (with the next sound). The eleventh minute brings us around to the final vocal section while the instrumental parts of the song show signs of cracking and, perhaps, dissolving. No such luck. And then there's the whole travesty of focusing a song about "Balthazaar" much less using the word as the exclusive occupant of the chorus's main lyric, repeated over and over. Sorry guys! This just doesn't live up to the high standards of your tremendous body of work! (17.375/20) 7. Bed of Roses (3:19)

Disc 2 (40:50) 8. Neotzar (The Second Coming)" (21:07) pretty weird and lame for the first 2:40 with piano-like guitar notes backing singer Thea Grant, but then the band kicks in with some decent cruise-drivin' music over which another lame vocal (and equally-lame background vocal) is set. The Mellotron strings work is mismatched and the guitar solos in the mid-section are just okay. At 8:15 there is a break before harp-like "heavenly" music fills a minute and more while, eventually, electric guitar plays a spacious series of mindless notes for another minute or so. In the eleventh minute some chords begin to form from behind, orchestral washes. At 12:15 some ominous and acerbic notes and chords begin amping things up until there is about 90 seconds of almost-UTOPIA/MAHAVISHNU/ZAPPA-like cacophony up to the end of the 14th minute. But then things smooth out and return to the main Motorpsycho highway though a more-subdued electric guitar continues soloing into end of the 15th minute before being rejoined by the other guitarist--who then takes over in the sixteenth. Man! It feels as if these guys have really been chompin' at the bit to have some loose solo time--even some vicious duels. Drummer Ingvald Vassbø really ups the chaos in the seventeenth minute but then things straighten out again for some piano and synth leadership--just before male vocalist steps in with a lame vocal. The final three minutes continue this piano-pounding palette while the guitarists (and vocalists--in the background) speed along toward the 21st minute in which they break it all down into bare-bones guitar and Mellotron note picking to the song's end. Interesting and sometimes exciting--especially if you're just into guitar shredding--but really not a greatly engaging or memorable song. (34.75/40) 9. Core Memory Corrupt (5:38) 10. Three Frightened Monkeys (8:41) 11. Dead of Winter (5:24)

Total Time 81:39

An album that feels like the two have rustled through their closets of old songs that had never made previous albums and dusted a few off for fresh renditions. I can see why most of these had been left in the closet. Even the ones that feel fresh are filled with either too much chaos or too much noodling: not the stuff that have kept me loyal to the cause for over 16 years.

The already-prolific and inexhaustibly eclectic studio output of Norwegian band Motorpsycho gets expanded by their 2025 self-titled album, a bold release that works as somewhat of a statement for the duo and their creative intentions in this decade of shifting trends and musical oversaturation. The exuberant mixture of styles on this double album is impressive to say the least, with the songs' styles ranging from fancy and ecstatic psych-pop numbers to sprawling jazz-infested krautrock monoliths of music, all part of a frantic and unpredictable musical world that lies somewhere along the lines of King Gizzard, The Mars Volta, King Crimson, and Led Zeppelin, yet always remaining true to the Motorpsycho aesthetic and usual sonic onslaught. Beware that the band's mixture of psychedelic, progressive and indie rock is quite dazzlingly eclectic as much as it can catchy and upbeat.

And not only this, but the music on here has been exclusively written by the two core members Bent Sæther and Hans Magnus Ryan, with a cast of guest musicians contributing to the record still, which probably makes this one of the most self-affirming and representative albums of the entire Motorpsycho catalog. Shorter songs inhabit the space between the three major pieces, which are all quite majestic - opener 'Lucifer, Bringer Of Light' is a quirky psychedelic roundabout, with its pop-like structure and repetitive rhythms over which the band experiment. This is definitely a heavy-psych piece working as a krautrock soundscape, followed by several shorter songs, some of which are heavier, others are a lot of fun, but throughout all of these, the dizzying hard rock soloing infiltrates so swiftly the bold and futuristic spacey soundscapes that the duo of Sæther and Magnus craft. The instrumental interlude 'Kip Satie' gives way to the epic and sweeping 'Balthazaar', one of the most expansive and sonically rich compositions on the album, soon enough followed by the big, progressive suite 'Neotzar', which is where the band allows some fusion to infiltrate the song's build-up and deliver one of the most demanding and inspiring performances of the year, without a doubt. Three more songs finish off the album, much in the same vein as the preceding tracks, but not as tremendously cathartic. But one thing is certain here - Motorpsycho's self-titled album is a wonderful creation of sprawling, epic psychedelia, progressive to the core and impenetrable at times, with just the right amounts of experimentation and fun.