The Fresh and Onlys - Play It Strange

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4...according to our Clinton on Thu 07 Oct, 2010.

Oh my giddy aunt! the opening track here 'Summer of Love' is simply superb. A wonderful slice of everything that was brilliant about hazy, druggy late '60's pop music and The Fresh and Only's capture it all in three minutes. Reverbed guitars, Doors like organs and a fantastic melody. Brilliant just brilliant. The rest of the album attempts gamely to live up to this, 'Waterfall has great twangy guitars and a rollicking melody, 'Until the End of Time' is similar - jangly psychedelia, Morricone-style guitar twang, melodic '60s sunshine pop, Cramps like gothic darkness and a hint of garage rock swagger all recorded on two track tape for that original 60's sound. It fairly belts along this album and the only disappointment is that nothing really lives up to the opening track but certainly its a whole heap of fun along the way.

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AT LAST! In The Red is proud to announce the release of the new full-length from San Francisco’s Fresh and Onlys, Play It Strange. After two albums (on Castle Face and Woodsist, respectively) and too many singles and EPs to count, The Fresh and Onlys deliver their most solid outing yet. Recorded by studio whiz Tim Green during an eight-day session, Play It Strange marks the band’s first recording in an actual recording studio. On two-inch analog tape! The results are nothing short of incredible. For those unfamiliar with The Fresh and Onlys, their sound draws from jangly psychedelia, Morricone-style Western twang, dark vibes à la Bad Seeds / Gun Club, melodic ’60s sunshine pop and a hint of garage rock swagger. While this disparate list may look strange on paper, it makes perfect sense when you hear it. Play It Strange is the sound of a band that has ingested a wide range of rock ’n’ roll influences from nearly every genre and sub-genre to come up with something fresh and immensely enjoyable. “... shambles barefoot through Summer of Love-style guitar and tambourine jams, strewing lyrical oddities and flower garlands along the path that leads, if not to where Syd Barrett lives, at least to Dan Treacy’s neighborhood.” —Dusted

“[T]he Fresh and Onlys traffic in jangly garage-pop, balancing psychrock swagger with generous dollops of sweetly cockeyed melody. Their recordings are lovingly caked with crud, and their jams sometimes veer perilously close to derailing completely, which might seem to lump them in with other San Francisco psych revivalists like Thee Oh Sees and Sic Alps. But the Fresh and Onlys are set apart by an endearingly fussy devotion to songcraft and an understated and unfakeable weirdness.” —Pitchfork

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