The Aliens - Luna
So, The Aliens have landed once more.
In the wake of 2007’s hugely successful, if slightly patchy, ‘Astronomy For Dogs’ the boys return with ‘Luna’. The first thought that strikes is that this is a far more cohesive set of tunes, the second thought is that somebody’s been listening to a lot of English 60’s psychedelia.
Case in point is the album’s opener, ‘Bobby’s Song’. A ten minute spacey epic that combines the kind of taut grooves that powered the Beta Band’s finest moments with the kind of playful psychedelia of Barrett era Pink Floyd.
After a short instrumental cum choral piece comes a paean to that most singular of instruments, the Theramin, although the lyric seems to have anthropomorphised said music machine in to the form of a young lady.
It’s the epic, six minute plus tracks that really stand out and form the spine of the record. In addition to ‘Bobby’s Song’, they give us ‘Billy Jack’, a space rock romp that whigs out with glorious abandon, ‘Boats’, a more relaxed affair but no less charming for it and the album closer, ‘Blue Mantle’ which manages to cram in influences the of Jean Michel Jarre, Jaquces Brel and Sigur Ros before it gently descends in to a reprise of ‘Bobby’s Song’.
That’s not to say the shorter tracks are in anyway lesser, the title track is a Moog powered journey through a technicolour soundscape, ‘Sunlamp Show’ is a stomper in the spirit of the Ogden’s Nut era Small Faces and ‘Daffodils’ could have lifted straight off ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets’, but it’s on the longer tracks the band give themselves the thinking room to explore their ideas and give vent to their prodigious talents.
Maybe not the most original album ever, although they do give the old ideas a certain modern colour that is entirely their own, but a record that sits comfortably in the cannon of British Psychedelic classics.
Top Tracks :'Bobby's Song', Billy Jack'.
Released 29/09/2008 on Pet Rock