Licorice Roots
Shades of Streamers
Essay
Judging from reactions already being voiced about Animal Collective’s latest album, most of that band’s previous strengths via the gallons of reverb drenching every last note don’t quite carry over when the group brings things into sharper focus. Licorice Roots’ take on psychedelica plays it close to the vest sewn so well by Animal Collective, perhaps willingly siphoning all of that band’s liquidity to flood their elongated odes to T. Rex. Unfortunately, their appropriations from Marc Bolan’s outfit come in the form of stoner riffs and a constant recycling of heavy-lidded pillow talk (“Come My Way” revolves almost entirely on the refrain “Momma are you gonna come my way?”) Such is the case with tracks like the 7-minute-plus opener “Starswept Dancer” – an unsubtle rewrite of “Cosmic Dancer.” Being buried beneath such levels of murky production doesn’t help matters much either; if these guys had given their material some room to breathe and taken some steps back from the virtually assured drug haze of songwriting they might have been able to put together an album to quietly take the reins from Animal Collective. That won’t be happening anytime soon.
Essay Records: http://www.essayrecords.com
