-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Post Animal ALBUM...: When I Think Of You In A Castle GENRE...: Rock STYLE...: Psychedelic Pop, Psychedelic Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Art Rock YEAR....: 2018 LABEL...: Polyvinyl COUNTRY.: USA FORMED..: Chicago, IL, 2014 ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0 BITRATE.: 261 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 11 SIZE....: 84.05 MB URL..: http://www.postanimal.us/ - TRACKLIST 1 Everywhere All At Once 2:32 2 Gelatin Mode 5:48 3 Tire Eyes 3:03 4 Ralphie 4:35 5 Heart Made Of Metal 5:33 6 Castle 3:33 7 Special Moment 3:06 8 Victory Lap: Danger Zone 4:31 9 One Thing 3:20 10 Dirtpicker 5:28 11 Susie 3:10 Total Playtime: 44:39 The bonus track, 'Susie' is not included on the Tracklist (Not printed on back of Digipak). https://www.discogs.com/release/12678792-Post-Animal-When-I-Think-Of-You-In-A-Castle https://postanimal.bandcamp.com/album/when-i-think-of-you-in-a-castle * Following a pair of EPs that were recorded before the band expanded to a six-piece, When I Think of You in a Castle is the full-length debut of Chicago's Post Animal. After getting some attention in the entertainment press for having Stranger Things actor Joe Keery ("Steve Harrington") among their members, Post Animal more than prove their classic-rock mettle on the album, which is also their label debut (Polyvinyl). It's a tight, sometimes bombastic, sometimes sweet mix of old-school hard, prog, and psych rock with a shot of indie-era slacker keeping it all grounded -- at least for the most part. Listeners will find passing nods to Queen, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and more after the quietly trippy instrumental "Everywhere All at Once" opens the set with acoustic guitar, harpsichord-like Casiotone, and rain. Intense rock drumming and both unison and harmonized guitar riffs from any the group's four guitarists set the stage for much of what's to come on "Gelatin Mode." A tempo-shifting epic that drifts between solo-peppered arena rock, metal, and floaty psychedelia, it's anchored by the group's ever-present harmonic sensibilities. The punkier "Dirtpicker" still makes room for harmonized guitar licks and solos, while more structured tracks like "Ralphie" and "Special Moment" circle power pop. The style digressions here are united by a consistent production palette, compact hooks, and a welcoming vibe that's the product of warm lyrics and vocals (by multiple members) that don't often posture, even when their instrumental counterparts do. Whether that all sounds cautionary or almost too good to be true, either reaction is correct concerning When I Think of You in a Castle, though skeptics might be won over by what are just plain good tunes. * Post Animal are a sextet from Chicago that meld psychedelia and prog rock, and When I Think of You In A Castle is their debut full-length. After a relaxed instrumental intro track, the album kicks directly into high gear with "Gelatin Mode", which bounces back and forth between fast, driving rock 'n roll verses and a more chilled out, psych-leaning chorus. In fact, "Gelatin Mode" may serve as the best microcosm of the album, equal parts Thin Lizzy and King Gizzard. Lead single "Ralphie" is a fun, bouncy romp through the poppier side of psych rock, sporting an earworm chorus and guitarwork that wouldn't be out of place in your favorite 1970s band's discography. Album closer "Dirtpicker" rides a fast-paced rhythm section churning under a pyramid of several guitar and keyboard lines and Joe Keery (of Stranger Things fame!)'s frantic vocals. Lyrically, Castle isn't anything groundbreaking, but it's also not trying to be. The band are either singing about pursuing women or a deeper understanding - expanding their minds, if you please. But you don't come to songs like "Special Moment" or "Victory Lap: Danger Zone" for emotional validation or revolutionary social commentary - you come for the trippy guitarwork of the former and sludgy, fuzzy verses of the latter. The album does tend to blend together a bit, with tracks like "One Thing" passing by with no particular impact, and overall it doesn't exactly bring anything new to the table. There isn't anything on the album that your dad's favorite prog rock bands haven't done before, but as previously stated, it's not trying to be. Castle is the sound of six dudes rockin' out together, a love letter to the experimental rock of the 1970s. Bust out your mood lighting, a good pair of speakers, and just, like, vibe with it, man. * The opening sounds of Post Animal's debut album might fool you. 'Everywhere All At Once' is lush and serene; a golden tapestry of fingerpicked guitars and rippling keys that builds softly, steadily. It sounds exactly like the kind of thing you'd record at a lake house, as the Chicago six-piece did, but it's also a rare calm moment on the album that came from those sessions. As a whole, 'When I Think Of You In A Castle' is very much the opposite of calm. It's a record that thrives on exploring as much territory and as many ideas as possible - often in the same song. Take 'Gelatin Mode', which begins with Wes Toledo's pounding, heartbeat drums, and Javi Reyes and Matt Williams' frantically weaving guitar lines. It shifts briefly into something more placid, but later morphs again into sludgy Sabbath-sized riffs. Similarly, 'Heart Made Of Metal' veers from bright psych-tinged power-pop to a doom-y end that wouldn't sound out of place on a Wand record. In lesser hands, these twists and turns would be a mess, but Post Animal use them to form a glorious trip. It's not all big riffs and weird zigzags - there's some pop gold here too. On 'Ralphie', guitarist Joe Keery (yes, you do recognise his name from a certain TV show) and bassist Dalton Allison trade equally perfect, lovelorn vocals ("Cos I went to the party and I left my pretty baby with Ralphie/Baby and now I'm alone") over shiny, infectious melodies its hard to dislodge from your brain. 'Special Moment' rides on Dalton's strutting bassline as he sings about the thrill of the uncertainty of the future ("And it's just the thought that maybe understanding so vaguely is the way it should be"). Even 'Tire Eyes', ushered in by Jake Hirshland's dramatic keys, packs a hook or two. Through it all, '...Castle' is not just cohesive - it feels like it's been made to be consumed as one whole body of work. Each song segues into the next, giving barely a second to pause or hit shuffle. But why would you want to do that with such a rewarding album that reveals new sounds and surprises with each listen? "I deserve a fucking gold medal," Post Animal sing on 'Victory Lap: Danger Zone'. They deserve several for this gem. * Psychedelia comes in many guises, and Post Animal wear just about all of them. The Chicago sextet's debut, When I Think of You in a Castle, is a practical travelogue through the genre's more melodic and explicitly rock-y incarnations, tempered with just the right amount of brawny power-pop. At times, they resemble the '70s-radio dreams of ELO and Wings, or an alternate-universe Thin Lizzy that came up in Athens, Georgia's storied Elephant 6 collective instead of the pubs of Dublin. The band's previous EPs-Post Animal Perform the Most Curious Water Activities from 2015, and 2016's The Garden Series-leaned hard on haze and fuzz, and while those elements are far from absent on When I Think of You in a Castle, there's a new sense of clarity and realization. As far as first LPs go, it's shockingly confident. Among the members of Post Animal is actor Joe Keery, whom you might recognize from the depths of your Chromecast as "Stranger Things" mimbo Steve Harrington. The six musicians in the group collectively share writing credits for the album, and they frequently swap lead vocal duties, so Keery's contributions wouldn't necessarily stand out-except for the fact that his other gig almost prevented Post Animal from continuing at all. "We weren't sure what the future of the band was going to look like," drummer Wesley Toledo states in a one-sheet. "We didn't know where we were all going, but we knew we wanted to make an album with all of us in the same room." Good thing, too: A self-produced effort recorded in a cabin by Michigan's Paw Paw Lake, When I Think of You in a Castle at its best resembles six guys jostling for elbow room as they pile colorful, blocky riffs atop one another like an intense game of Jenga. "Heavy" is an adjective often applied to variants of psych-rock and pop, and Post Animal often sound like they weigh a thousand tons, breaking into doomy sludge in the middle of the dizzying "Gelatin Mode" and melding Toledo's arrhythmia-inducing bass hits and Keery's frantic vocals on "Dirtpicker" to create an endlessly building, ziggurat-like effect. If those descriptors sound like they hew closely to the nerdy sonic calculus of prog rock, you're not too far off. Mountain-scaling arpeggios and showy chord progressions are practically in the band's DNA, and there's a sense of old-fashioned skill emanating from When I Think of You in a Castle that is, at times, gloriously unfashionable compared to the current indie rock landscape. But focusing on Post Animal's considerable chops also risks overlooking the band's impressive skill for crafting memorable melodic baubles. Dalton Allison's satisfying high register punctuates the turned-loose drum solos and stop-start breakdowns of "Tire Eyes," and "Ralphie" opens up from a six-stringed air raid to reveal a sweet power-pop gem with interlocking vocal hooks crafted to raise your blood sugar levels. Despite being a clear album standout, the panting horndog-isms of "Ralphie" also represent Post Animal's true Achilles heel: They may have no trouble getting creative musically, but their lyrical content isn't quite as inventive. The band recently admitted in a track-by-track breakdown that the lyrics of "Gelatin Mode" are essentially interchangeable placeholders, and Post Animal's subject matter-generally falling into the two broad categories of lusting after women and expanding your mind-confirms the impression that words aren't their focal point. This is, for now, fine; there's a long legacy of psychedelic music where what's being said is of far lesser concern than what's being played. But the lyrical efforts from some of Post Animal's clearest predecessors-MGMT's saucer-eyed apocalyptic visions, the Magic Eye-like emotional anxiety of Tame Impala-highlight the fact that this band has nowhere to grow but up. * Chicago-based rock 'n roll group Post Animal have been kicking around for years, but it wasn't until 2016 when they fully came together as a band and began touring, boasting the presence of Stranger Things actor Joe Keery among their ranks, no doubt helping raise their profile. They built up hype with 2015's debut EP Performs the Most Curious Water Activities, as well as a series of singles the following year, including the wonderful "When I Get Home", a funky and seductive number that takes from Tame Impala in all the right ways. And this 4/20, they grace us with their debut full-length, the curiously titled When I Think Of You In A Castle. Listening to this album, it was honestly a surprise to find that these guys weren't from Australia. The sound they display throughout the record owes much to that of Down Under psych staples Tame Impala and King Gizzard and their respective influences, with touches of Ty Segall's fuzz-rock and Mild High Club's supremely relaxed hypnagogic pop. The problem is, many of these songs tread just a little too closely to their counterparts, leading the album to feel like a mere conglomeration of those influences, rather than a synthesis. The first 'proper song', "Gelatin Mode" is fine, crashing in after the sleepy opener with thumping, propulsive drums and energetic, driving garage rock guitars. It ebbs and flows where it should, culminating in a heavy, slow outro that goes on a little too long, but still leaves the song enjoyable overall. And the band use a similar formula for the other five-plus minute epic, "Heart Made of Metal" - this one is a little more measured, with not as dramatic rises and falls, but what sets it apart is its outro - here, following a pause, the song takes a complete turn from its sunny disposition with a sinister and menacing guitar riff, making for a chaotic end to the song with ominous chanted vocals. And to bring up King Gizzard again, the album's penultimate song "Dirtpicker" sounds exactly like a long-lost outtake from that group's I'm In Your Mind Fuzz LP (2014), heavily resembling its "Mind Fuzz" suite with its steady, propulsive drum rhythms and one-note bass pulse, with even the vocals bearing more than a passing resemblance to that band. The album starts off promisingly, though, with what may well be one of its best cuts. "Everywhere All At Once" is a dreamy and lightly mysterious instrumental, the gentle acoustic guitars meshing well with the watery keyboards over the sound of rain, evoking some kind of mysterious, far-off island covered by mist, with the castle that's mentioned in the album's title. The setting is returned to later on with more lucidity on "Castle", the mid-point break of the album that comes with relaxing hypnagogic keyboards and guitar bends, given a spacey feel with its brief verse and extended instrumental. It is perhaps the sweetest that this album gets. And the other slow, gentler song, "One Thing", is the gloomiest on the record - the same tangy, hypnagogic keyboards here evoke a feeling of melancholy and hurt, with some sour chords adding to the song's rainy atmosphere. With their debut LP, Post Animal have crafted a pleasant and accomplished psychedelic rock effort, but one that shows they still have some way to go in finding a distinct identity and a unique sound. While the songs are for the most part enjoyable, one often can't escape the feeling that these same ideas have already been done by other bands - and better. It's not that there's anything wrong with repeating ideas, but for now it just doesn't seem like the band have much personality to back it up. Still, as a light and summery psych rock record, this one gets by just fine. It will be interesting to see where they go from here and how they will develop their sound. -=- SHGZ -=- -=-=-==-=-=- Shoegaze is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the late 80s. The genre is very difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and textural distortion that create a tranquil, opaque feeling. ---==--==---