We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:42:45
Personnel: Spiral Stairs (vocals, guitar); Tim Regan (guitar, piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizer, background vocals); Dan Long (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, percussion, background vocals); Kelley Stoltz (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer); Luke White (guitar, background vocals); Allyson Baker (guitar); Jamin Barton (saxophone); Marc Capelle (trumpet); Greg Barkley (organ, synthesizer); Alex Lipsen (organ); Adam Wade , Justin Peroff, Jim Lindsay (drums); Morse Code , Larry Bergin (percussion); Brian McPherson, Craig Jackson, Darby Saxbe, Dahlia Mamas (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Dan Long. Recording information: Electric Duck Studios, SF, CA (2018); Exactamundo Studios, Eaglerock, CA (2018); High/Low Recording, Memphis, TN (2018). We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized, the third album Scott Kannberg has released under the name Spiral Stairs, opens with a big, bouncy beat that practically invites the appearance of a horn section. The surprise arrives when Spiral Stairs actually adds those horns, the first of many bold detours on We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized. Keep in mind those detours are contextual. An Ameri-Indie stalwart since he co-anchored Pavement, Spiral Stairs usually deals with the barbed, brittle sounds of classic underground rock, but he abandons that aesthetic here, trafficking in grand gestures and bold colors. Kannberg can still evoke memories of college rock, but it's the clean, polished crossover college rock of the dawn of the '90s. Despite this aesthetic, it's hard to call We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized nostalgic, not with the undercurrent of social commentary and the urgency to the production. It feels like the turmoil of the late 2010s has galvanized Spiral Stairs into making his most direct and stylistically adventurous (which is a quite different thing than experimental music) music yet. Perhaps Kannberg can be a little on the nose, writing verses about investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on "Swampland," but that only adds to the charm of the album: after years of championing obscurity, there's something bracing and endearing about hearing Spiral Stairs aim squarely for the gut. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine