Opening with the fuzz-tastic "Ambulance City," a largely nonsensical lo-fi stadium anthem that falls somewhere between the blase nihilism of
Parquet Courts
, the hypnotic, analog synth thrum of early
Stereolab
, and the erudite, classic rock posturing of
the Hold Steady
,
the Pink Mountaintops
' fourth long-player is dense, difficult, intoxicating, and bereft of a single dull moment. As hallucinogen-friendly and headphone-ready as it is willfully lo-fi, the ten-song
Get Back
is as spirited an outing as anything that
Stephen McBean
has released with his meal-ticket band,
Black Mountain
, and while it might lack some of that group's seismic follow-through, it more than makes up for the thunder with ample amounts of psych-fueled electricity.
McBean
declares 1987 as "The Second Summer of Love" on the album's second cut, a propulsive slab of nostalgia that wrestles and ultimately forces its angular post-punk framework into a shoulder-padded new wave sport coat, a trick used again with great aplomb on the dizzying
Echo & the Bunnymen
-meets-
the Smiths
-inspired gem "Wheels."
and company stretch those retro parameters further down the scale, flexing their classic rock muscles on the
Crazy Horse
-kissed "Through All the Worry" and the wistful and broken "New Teenage Mutilation," the latter of which sounds like it was delivered via a beat-up, alternate universe
E Street Band
that never made it out of "Jungleland." Four records in,
Pink Mountaintops
sound less like a ballast-blasted side project and more like a streamlined, fully functioning beast.
isn't pretty -- this is a sloppy, wet kiss of a record that leaves a little sick on you -- but it's heartfelt enough to win you over and dangerous enough to wish you had told someone before you got into the car with it, which is what rock & roll in its purest form should be. ~ James Christopher Monger