God Bless the Electric Freak

Psychedelic riff-and-roll that owes a debt to the MC5s, the Stooges, the Heads and their recent ilk, and of course Lenny Kravitz … er, I mean Jimi. Simplistic patterns repeated enthusiastically and a tendency toward astronomy-themed lyrics – spacemen, galaxies, comets, etc. – in the first couple of tracks. Then, seemingly, the stops come out and they start burning down nearly every track. Kickass.

1. Spaceman-beseeching lyrics over melodic guitars
2. Oddly, another astronomy-based lyric, this time an ode to a comet
3. Revved up guitars, ultra-catchy tune, and spaceoid keyboards to complete the package
4. Slightly hackneyed use of sitars-n-stuff and the mid-tempo is a bit dull but the melody is catchy
5. Guitar and vocal distortion with a vengeance; YOW!
6. Oh fuck! “Apocalypse Rock” is what it’s called and it’s screaming on all channels
7. Tribute to George Harrison, whose spiritual explorations in India with and without his Beatles mates made him a patron saint of psychedelic rock
8. Swirling orientalist instrumental
9. Snippet about taking a stress pill by Hal of 2001: A Space Odyssey lurks in the background behind massive power chording
10. Ooh, an in-joke, this being a rockist cover of “Daisy”, the song that Hal starts singing when Dave begins to power him down; ultimately, this is sort of a sweetly psychedelic cover of some children’s tunes
11. Lazy “La-la-la-lazy” run forwards and backwards through the playback
12. Cram the guitar and the vox through a fuzztone and out comes this mighty tune