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Psychedelic music has always confused me. I always associated psychedelic with flower power, bright colors, blurry colors,
euphoria, stimulants, and happy music. Then people told me that Pink Floyd was the best psychedelic band ever, to which I
got seriously confused. I still have no idea what psychedelic music is.
Nevertheless, if Pink Floyd is psychedelic,
then so is Wicked Immigrant. Thankfully, Wicked Immigrant knows where to draw the line between influence and idol worship;
this album, while definitely influenced by Pink Floyd, has its own sound thanks to the grafting of folk-rock influences into
the sound. Pink Floyd also rocked out a lot more than Wicked Immigrant does; the members of Wicked Immigrant prefer
the mellow approach to music.
While it's easy to classify Wicked Immigrant's sound, it's much harder to
explained the music contained therein. It's the perfect road-trip album, as the hypnotic acoustic guitar/keys/bass mix
transcends mere songs and creates a contiguous feel to the entire album. The guitars are haunting, the bass is subtle but
very important, the vocals are mournful, and the occasional cello offsets everything wonderfully, creating
a wall of hypnotic, soothing sound. While certain songs are fantastic ("Broken Fingers of the Forest", "Hours
Underwater", the sweeping epic "White Concrete"), the charm in this album lies in the fact that this album creates a
flawless mood. I could listen to this endlessly; the performances are delightfully mid-fi (not low, but not high either, creating
a warm sound), the songwriting is excellent, and the sound is unique- what else is there to want?
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