Thee Oh Sees – Drop – VINYL LP

Description

Received a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork… Our lad John P. Dwyer has been lancing eardrums with Thee Oh Sees in an ever-escalating flurry of records for the past six years. Since the release of The MasterÕs Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In announced a new loud era (and excepting a few momentary detours into home-baked territoryÑDog Poison and Castlemania, for example), Dwyer and company have pummeled a bit harder each time out, cementing their reputation as a live force to be reckoned with and leaving legions sweaty and bruised in the process. Late last year, after years of relentlessly touring the world, the word got outÉ DwyerÕs moving to Los Angeles (fear not, still California!) and Thee Oh Sees are taking a much-needed hiatus with a shifting of gears ahead and a new album on the way. This is that album. Drop was recorded in a banana-ripening warehouse (no joke) with hair-farming studio warlock Chris Woodhouse playing drums; itÕs also graced with the presence of talented gurus Mikal Cronin, Greer McGettrick and Casafis adding horns and vocals. The result pushes the familiar polarities of the group farther outward than ever before. Opener ÒPenetrating EyeÓ might be the heaviest Oh Sees song yet, ÒTransparent WorldÓ and ÒPut Some Reverb On My BrotherÓ foam with seasick fuzz, and yet the ballads, like the harpsichorded ÒKingÕs NoseÓ and the lush and stately closer ÒThe Lens,Ó extend their oeuvre into mellotronic, far-out pop with delicacy and grace. This schizophrenia heralds the man and the band into an unseen future in classic Dwyer fashionÑrestless energy harnessed into exquisitely crafted jams, with an emphasis on the pensive and the paranoid in turns.

A1 Penetrating Eye
A2 Encrypted Bounce
A3 Savage Victory
A4 Put Some Reverb On My Brother
B5 Drop
B6 Camera (Queer Sound)
B7 King’s Nose
B8 Transparent World
B9 The Lens