Sean Yoxovic and the Streamers aren’t exactly surfing the zeitgeist. Putting aside the fashionable racket currently emanating from their home city of New York they studiously ignore such post punk fripperies. Instead, it is the golden era of 60’s psychedelia that floats their boat and in building upon their influences they have made a surprisingly refreshing sounding record.
Sure, these influences are worn proudly on their sleeves and contain such luminaries as ‘Revolver’ era Beatles, The Kinks at their most whimsical and the Byrds. To be influenced by one of pops golden periods is one thing, to take these influences and shape something unique from it is another matter completely. To dismiss this as just re-treading old ground would be to miss out.
Opener ‘Mr Grey’ is a glorious piece of sunny rock ‘n’ roll with wonderful use of harmonies. Lyrically the subject matter is darker than the music would suggest which is a theme that runs throughout this record. ‘Dream of Freedom’ for example opens with the lyric ‘I saw newspapers today / Guys in black shot another man / I thought one more unsettled case / But that just happens every day’. Or how about ‘I live in a basement and I don’t want to see the sunlight / I live in a basement and hate all that isn’t dark night’ from Basement. Lyrics that scream existential angst to be set pile driving riffs and walls of feedback are saved by the bands pop sensibility.
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As if to prove that this isn’t just a nostalgia fest, ‘Super Piggy’ is an instrumental that utilises programmed drums and samples that sounds for all the world as if it was left off of The Charlatans' ‘Wonderland’ and remixed by David Holmes. Theoretically it should be utterly out of place but credit to the Streamers as it is one of the best tracks on the album. ‘Again on the Road’ is as rocky as Sean Yoxovic and the Streamers get, a mid paced belter allowing the band to even have a mild wig out half way through shows that these guys have plenty in reserve.
Occasionally, they are less successful. ‘This is not a Material World’ suffers from a mumbled vocal and seems to collapse on itself at the chorus. A shame because it also contains some great phasing reminiscent of the Chemical Brothers’ ‘Private Psychedelic Reel’. ‘Back to the Forest’, the closing track, ends with a whimper rather than a bang but this is nit picking. Overall this is a fine example of a melodic, 60’s tinged rock music that isn’t afraid of the modern world.
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