Thee Oh Sees - Castlemania

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips
Tracklist

A1 - I Need Seed
A2 - Corprophagist (A Bath Perhaps)
A3 - Stinking Cloud
A4 - Corrupted Coffin
A5 - Pleasure Blimps
A6 - A Wall, A Century 2
B1 - Spider Cider
B2 - The Whipping Continues
B3 - Blood On The Deck
B4 - Castlemania
B5 - AA Warm Breeze
B6 - Idea For Rubber Dog
B7 - The Horse Was Lost
C1 - I Won't Hurt You
C2 - If I Stay Too Long
C3 - What Are We Craving?

5...according to our Mike on Thu 05 May, 2011.

Hurrah! A new Oh Sees record from those ever reliable folks at In The Red. It's hard to come up with anything new to say about this band. You're probably already familiar with them, they've been at the forefront of this latest garage rock boom for some time, but if not this is as good a time as any to get acquainted. This is an album full of deceptively simple garage pop ditties whose delivery and throwaway lyrics kind of remind me of the Frogs in places, but with beautifully 60s psych-inflected arrangements and lots of clattery lo-fi charm. It's pretty varied stuff; everything from ballads to scratchy noise-punk. Ty Segall crops up on a couple of tracks which makes sense because that album he did last year had a very similar kind of charm to it. Everything you want from Thee Oh Sees, really - childish but not puerile, noisy but tuneful, psychedelic but concise, obnoxious but lovely.

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San Francisco s incredibly prolific Thee Oh Sees are back with another full-length album of original tracks plus a smattering of covers. While the group s previous releases on In The Red, Help and Warm Slime, showcase their amped-up, reverb-drenched garage-psych pummel, on Castlemania, John Dwyer and company take a more lowkey approach. Dwyer himself describes Castlemania as summer-y and poppy ; on many of the tracks, electric guitars are jettisoned for acoustic, and the normally echo-laden vocals are a bit clearer. Happy pop melodies, sweet and somber tunes, psychedelic moves galore, cover versions of The Creation and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and at least one garage stomper all rub elbows on Thee Oh Sees sunshine pop album. Its release couldn t be more perfectly suited to the time of the year when the sunny skies return and the flowers start blooming.

Myfavouritedress said:

i do not own a THEE OH SEES record! So i think i should do something about that!! This sounds bloody fantastic, lovely and shambolic, whilst making me smile!! Up THEE OH SEES, up the NORMS!!

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!