Standout longplayers

25 February 2023

Band: THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
New album: THE FUTURE IS YOUR PAST
Released: 10 February 2023 – order info here

Anton Newcombe: “My son Wolfgang is very different to me, thank god, but we have so many things in common; dancing, making up songs, and vocalizing strange combinations of words and ideas that make us laugh, or make sense to us in some meaningful way,” frontman Anton Newcombe said in a press release. “At a certain point, I started writing down these words and random ideas to use as titles. I felt like everything was so sad and hopeless, but I am not helpless. I decided to sing anthems to empower me, to remember to remember, to fight the beast until it dies, to give it everything you got because that’s all there is to give… these were not songs for COVID times, for these times of war and crisis after crisis, these are songs for all time.”

(Photo by Turn Up The Volume)

Louder Than War said:“Aside from plundering the darkest corners of psychedelic rock,
Brian Jonestown Massacre have ventured into all corners of the sonic spectrum from rock’n’roll, blues, folk, country and pop through to blazing swirls of distortion and mesmerising fuzzed up soundscapes. Also do not forget the sonic textures which have been influenced by musical traditions across the globe, especially the middle east. Much of all of this is on this album
albeit in different shades and shapes than before.”

TUTV: Last year’s Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees was unquestionably one of the best BJTM’s longplayers of the 21st Century. An intoxicating piece of work still playing regularly on my stereo.

Guess what? Only eight months later and 24/7 musician Anton Newcombe hits bulseye again with this fantastic new LP. Fans (including me, of course) know his all-time favorite sonic sphere he operates in for years now.

The 60s psychedelic fuzz and buzz, the famed BJTM feedback, the jingle jangle virtuosity, the affecting, feverish vocals are all around again with an (even) richer and coherent reverberation than in the old(er) days, but most of all the record’s 10 songs, are without any exception, TOPNOTCH TUNES. Every single track has its own magnetizing attraction and its own spellbinding aura. No arty-farty redundancy, only pure spot-on crafted melodies. An art in itself, missing with so many artists/bands.

I know and you know the cliché, but it’s the most effective way to describe this magnum psych opus: no fillers, all killers. File between the Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request and Love’s Forever Changes.

SINGLES: Fudge / The Future Is Your Past

– THE FUTURE IS YOUR PAST –

– FUDGE –

ALBUM

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UK Tour 2023
Say no more.

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