The standout track (besides “Miracle”) that’ll make you dig out your Flying Nun collection, Velvet Underground box set & your molding British 80s/90s noisy jangle-pop 45s is “I Am”, which I’m posting for you here. Stellar stuff, and on the fast track for song of (and keyboard riff of) the year. Other songs are nearly as solid, though some attack heavier than others, while others go for the heavy-lidded slow burn. There’s even something I think you kids call “techno” at the very end, although it’s techno run through goth and hippie and garage punk. Because these guys are popmeisters, there’s no long jams. They don’t play that way. A lot of guitar, old-model keyboards, vocal effects and more are crammed together in each song, giving them a tightly-packed, soaring sort of otherworldliness. I’m happiest when I can’t understand the lyrics; when I can, as in the cute doggie tribute “Prairie Puppies”, I’m, uh – less happy.
I put this on a level with The Brian Jonestown Massacre if that band had gone a little heavier, louder and had embraced the raw. Radar Eyes are already more consistent than they ever were, too. Play some songs and you’ll see what I mean – and you can buy it right here.
