PHOENIX

Release a year after their album début, "Phoenix" finds the Warlocks already slimming down and refining their sound. Now down to just the one drummer, the band retain the four lead guitars configuration, but band leader Bobby Hecksher doubles up on bass as the number of members is cut from eight to five.

Sounding something like a cross between Death in Vegas and Spiritualized, most of the psychedelic influences and improvised jams are left behind this time around, to be replaced by a more direct indie pop rock sound. Tracks such as "Hurricane Heart Attack" and "Isolation" (not on the US release) have a dirge like quality founded on a heavy, plodding lead guitar base, with distorted vocals on the former offering a disquieting overtone.

Even the longer tracks, like the 9½ minute "Cosmic letdown", remain fundamentally straightforward, its length being partly due to an extended drone to end the song. The most commercially orientated song on the album is "Baby blue", mainly due to the light melodic vocals and wispy lyrics. The upbeat "The Dope Feels Good" (a demo of which appears on the expanded version of the first album) leans heavily again on the style adopted by Spiritualized (Spaceman 3), the retro sound and catchy lead guitar making the song irresistible in a pop sort of way.

The closing track "Oh Shadie" is by far the longest at over 14 minutes. While on the first album such a track would inevitably have been a frantic jam, here it is a post rock style dirge which gradually builds through a repeated instrumental refrain.

Overall, a more accomplished album that "Rise and fall", but also a less distinguished one. Whereas the first album saw the band paying tribute to the past while ploughing their own furrow, "Phoenix", by being more contemporary, ironically lacks that feel of something different. A good album though.

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