The press email prepares me for a wild ride, promising ‘A roaring romp through genres that embraces elements of psych, doom, prog, alt-rock and even the Spaghetti Western pomp of Morricone’, and their bio further presses their eclecticism: ‘Psyched-out fuzzy garage stoner rock emerging from the depths of the UK’s deep south, Mothman, The Man are an odd-squad collective of sonic sorcerers and aural warlocks trained in the ancient art of rock and/or roll.’
It’s sometimes difficult to differentiate between eclecticism and range, a band with ideas unshackled by conformity, and a band that doesn’t know what it’s really about.
‘Where’s Your Head?’ is an eye-opening journey that really does go all the places, and it’ll leave you dazed, bewildered, uncertain. There is simply so much to absorb – but they make it work having pitched their stall on the cornerstone of eclecticism and unpredictability. You can’t really criticise a band for delivering on what they promise, and actually, they do a decent job, not only in that this diversity doesn’t sound in any way forced, but that they have some good, well-realised songs that bring the hooks and rock out as well as creating some spectacular moments of atmosphere.
The title track is a smash-the-pedals four-chord grunge stomper that’s pure ‘Nevermind’ in the chorus, but with some art-rock amblings in the place of the verses, before it melts into a huge cathedral of shoegaze bliss that’s more early Ride.
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‘The Light’ is a sprawling psychedelic shoegaze trip with vocal harmonies blending magnificently over swirling layers of guitar, but then it breaks out into a straight-up mega riff around halfway through, its weight-rating shooting from a middling five to a gutsy eight as they go heavy.
It shouldn’t work – but it does. ‘Mother Leeds’ 13th Child, Pts 1&2’, which closes the album, is the only track which truly indulges the epic tendencies hinted at across the album, offering a multi-faceted seven-and-a-half-minute finale to an album that really stretches the listener – and the band, as they strive to go new places, pushing in all directions with every composition. It’s a significant accomplishment, and miraculously cohesive, considering.
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