This shimmering song is fresh as a newly minted Smiths tune. It's upliftingly mournful with a tingling Rickenbacker sound. Stephanie and Richard Green sing with conviction and style. Everything about it is sharp and to the point. It’s great pop music, and it’s got plenty of integrity to take home and get friendly with. If you said "Indie" I think I would know what you meant here, but I would have to poke you in the ribs and say "Yeh, but very very good Indie."
Second track "We Never Loved You" rushes over towards Lightning Bolt territory, (almost) but loses its nerve quite quickly and sneaks back towards something a bit more crazed punk pop. Together with epic third track "Waiting …" it serves to let the pop-purchaser that The Somatics are much more than just a pretty tune.
"Waiting …" has a long chiming intro that plunges its fine head into a bucket of something visceral in the first vocal outburst. The chiming ignores the outbreak of oddness and goes on into trippier space and we could be on the kaftan express, heading out to Furthur. It’s pretty majestic stuff. But why has it got itself on the other end of a neat pop single? Distant choir-like voices give no clues. There are Beatles-ish studio lurches towards the end and your reviewer is feeling like the magic mushrooms have kicked in.
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Perhaps there's a danger in seeming to say "if you don’t like that one, we can do something else"? If huge diversity and violent mood swings are what the Somatics are all about, someone in Management might need to have a word about how that very cool idea can best be put to good use. Purchasers of " Did You Ever Love Me?" might not be happy with "Waiting …". Maybe its a pity, but it's a long time since we needed bands who could do a bit of everything.
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