Rewild

Oh look, another psych electro band from Wesleyan. Spacey, overproduced, trippy. If neon and feathers could sing. Sounds like: their classmates MGMT, quite willfully. However: Amazing Baby are more forwardly glam, and rely less on synth than big guitar. Also in there: Suede, Slade, Let’s Dance era Bowie, Elvis Costello. Like if Pink Floyd and T. Rex formed a supergroup. Hey, it could happen.

Amazing Baby (a five piece at the moment) are cored by Will Roen and Simon O’Connor. These guys roomed and played and partied with the MGMT boys, Boy Crisis, Chairlift... but formed in early ’08 (well after the Oracular Spectacular drop). How interconnected are these kiddos? I’ll refer you to Will Roen’s excellent boast to RS that he and MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser have “all slept with the same girls”. Very cavalier, Will.

try: 11, 1-4 (FCC on 4)
FCC: 4, 6

*1. pop rock beat. quick-hits and lots of string noise. pointy bass, glammy vocals. very elvis costello. wraps with a poppy vocal vamp.
*2. epic, loud, orchestral black keys-y plod and pink floyd vocals/melody. definitely fell off the DSOTM train.
*3. fast tambourine/drums & train whistle oohs. oppositional bass. croony glam chorus.
*4. FCC “fuckin” once. laid back glam pop. slicing, slidy electric. shuffle drums.
5. mellow old school glam. slower, melodic, wa wa backing vocals. sounds like the MGMT song “of moons birds & monsters”... you know, like XTC.
6. FCC fast, means-business drums & snottier vocals. darker, minor, aggrieved.
7. FCC “fucked” once. serious lion king orchestration in intro/chorus. synth/keys & simple drums. fade starts a little early.
8. is that a... sitar? hand-drums & ironic chant backup vocals. some serious moody blues / the who action on this one. FYI: a narwhal is a medium-sized toothed whale. really!
9. slower, stretched out whirlpool track. padded drums. ripply, reverby backing vocals.
10. rocky. cymbal-heavy drums & wrangly guitar in chorus, low rumbly verse vocals. poppy chorus with bizarre lyrics: “we are starving cannibals”.
*11. fuck yeah! draggy cool psych rock + uppercut vocals + wailing electric. very bizarre take on “do the locomotion” in the chorus. sustained synth chords vs rock strum sound. suedey “oh”s. fade-out starts :30 to end, but can be played out.