It starts out promisingly enough. 'Mellow My Mind' is all Beatles-inspired melodies and chord sequences stepping up a gear to become a more muscular psych-tinged rocker as the song progress. Some backwards guitars introduce 'Dare to Lick' which is 'Tomorrow Never Knows' as covered by Ride circa their debut album. I'm starting to think that La Fleur Fatale could be onto something here.
However, it isn't long before things start to get a bit weary, a bit monotonous, a bit, well, lame. 'Winding Stairs' is folk filtered through a popped-up Who - ok, but a bit starry-eyed and limp-wristed, the kind of tuneful indie-pop you hear countless little local support bands play midweek and think 'ok for a local support band but I'd not want to buy their records.' At least, that's something I've found myself thinking countless times through the years as I've watched the college rentacrowds go nuts for their mates' band while standing, unmoved, wondering what the fuss is about.
'Astral Girl' falls to cliche, all spaced out guitars and lyrics about the mythical girl, and, oh, 'here she comes...' How many time have I heard that line?
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'Hotel of Your Mind' fuses 60s psych-pop and shoegaze, while 'Unreal City' takes a turn for the baggy, reminiscent of early Charlatans in more than just its use of the hammond organ. The middle eight space-out's actually pretty interesting, which is more than can be said for the lacklustre 'Pretty vacancy.' I simply don't feel the 'way you move me out of control,' delivered as it is in a style that's pleasant but passionless.
It may be well-meaning enough, but the overuse of 'cosmic' and other tripped-out terms seems all a bit affected, trying too hard to be groovy and let it all hang loose, man, and I'm afraid I just don't dig that scene.
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