There Is Only Now

構成数 : 1
合計収録時間 : 00:00:00
As a member of the Prisoners in the '80s, Allan Crockford was right in the middle of the heyday of England's first wave of garage rock and psychedelia revivalists. After that initial run, Crockford never stopped playing in bands dedicated to extracting the vital elements of the best music of the '60s (mod, psych-pop, folk-rock, garage) and giving it a modern boost. The Galileo 7 are the first band to feature his lead vocals and songwriting, and starting with 2010's Are We Having Fun Yet?, Crockford has made the most of the opportunity. The band show off the vintage purple flash of a freakbeat combo, songs that stick and move like a boxer in tip-top shape, and enough power to light a small city for a year. There Is Only Now is the band's fifth album, and it's another corker. Crockford is joined again by bassist Paul Moss, organist Viv Bonsels, and drummer Mole (who's also a member of like-minded band the Embrooks) for a set of songs that updates the Small Faces and Who with gleeful abandon and a vicious bite. They recorded live to tape in their rehearsal space, then did overdubs at Crockford and Bonsels' basement studio space. The result is punchy and economical with a nice bit of Medway roughness around the edges. The opening song, "Everything Is Everything Else," bursts out of the speakers like a clarion call for the ravers, and the record doesn't slow down from there. Crockford's guitar playing is crunchy and sparking, Mole pounds away like he's working a giant whack-a-mole game, Bonsels spreads thick dollops of organ through the songs, and Moss holds it all down with understated and melodic style. Along with Crockford, everyone in the band sings, and their harmonies are bright and rich. Bonsels takes lead on a couple tracks and acquits herself nicely; Mole and Moss also take one lead apiece and sound perfectly fine. It's a well-trod path the band chose to explore, and they will likely be the last ones to claim they were doing anything new. What they do is supercharge the old sounds into something exciting while also injecting some modern world-weariness into the lyrics on tracks like the sludgy psych-pop ballad "The World Looks Different Today." Crockford has made a musical career out of digging up the past, usually in impressive fashion. Rarely has he done it as well as with the Galileo 7, and There Is Only Now is on par with their best work. Uplifting, inspiring, and hooky as hell, it's a credit to their skill as musical magpies, reimaginers of classic sounds, and musicians that the album doesn't sound like a museum piece; it's as alive and vital as the Small Faces or Creation or Prisoners at their powerful best. ~ Tim Sendra