Motorpsycho — Phanerothyme

I always regret it when I discover a really good band that I've known for years, but never really took the time to listen to. As you might've guessed, this happened with the Norwegian band Motorpsycho. I've even seen a documentary about them on national television, but I still didn't bother. So I'm glad I picked up their last studio album Phanerothyme after a friend of mine recommended it to me recently.

Phanerothyme is the logical continuation of 'Let Them Eat Cake' and the 'Barracuda EP' where we could hear Motorpsycho play semi-psychadelic pop music, heavily rooted in the '60s and '70s. And as far as I know, it's the first time Motorpsycho continues a new studio album in the same vein as their previous effort. Not that it matters since Phanerothyme is pretty good.

The album opens with 'Bedroom Eyes', which serves as an intro to the rest of the album. The song has a small Simon & Garfunkel influence and some nice string parts. It's an odd little song, but suprisingly pretty good. Then 'For Free' starts with some groovy guitar licks. It's an upbeat song and I love the solo in the middle of of it, it's one of my favourites on the album. 'B.S.' is even happier, it's hard to sit still with this music, and the flute parts just rule. Of course I won't forget my favourite song 'Go To California', yes heavy Beach Boys influence, but that doesn't matter. It's the catchy lyrics and the looooong psychadelic solo that makes it so damn good. The only song I just can't seem to like is 'When You're Dead', which is just a filler for me, and a bad way to end a good album.

So with eight outstanding songs, Motorpsycho made one pretty good album. Phanerothyme sticks in your head, and won't let you go. I keep playing the album a lot and keep coming back to it. So of course all true Motorpsycho-nauts already own it, but if you're unfamiliar with this band, you can start with buying Phanerothyme.