Wish I had a had a different road-map for this one, as the one I have is dogged-eared, covered in coffee-stains and falling apart at the seams from years of systematic abuse by young and deeply psychedelic celestial beings out to redefine boundaries eked out already rather satisfactorily by John Lennon’s ‘Mind Games’ and Sparklehorse’s ‘Good Morning Spider’. Not that it’s an unpleasant read by any means; rich tapestries of timorous, fragile vocals, hypnotic arpeggios, cellos weeping like cherubim and Seraphim in the background, cyclic chord patterns, mellotron, swelling orchestras, tinkling bells and fantastically impenetrable wordscapes: “In crowds like burdens/I feel hundreds of worlds flowing through my head/then entering the patterns of shallow ghosts”. Of course it’s easy for these chaps to say, they don’t have to go shopping in Tesco where they have ‘crowds like burden’ certainly, but a rather lamentable range of quality ‘shallow ghost’ goods.
Philosophical, unearthly and vibrating with all manner of cosmic energies, tracks like ‘21st Century Paradise Traveller’ and ‘Paper Tangerine Crush’ combine the slack, clatter-kick beats of The Flaming Lips and the delicate bee-like buzz of pretty melodies so affectionately weaved by Jonathan Donohue and Mercury Rev; trippy, astral dream pop, poignant, lyrical and bursting at the seams with bonkers imagery: kitten murders, lepers’ drowned trombones, itching tans, global hearts, a pocketful of ambers, flattering clowns and crowds of apes. It’s part lo-fi, part hi-fi and as likely to leave you as disorientated and well rested as a fortnight in an isolation tank. So no: there’s no rock-outs.
Meet Sweden’s Surrounded. Downtempo Americana. On acid.
‘THE NAUTILUS YEARS’ – Released 10/03/08