reviews / 2009

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS - Outside Love

2009 (Jagjaguwar)
alt-pop, psych-pop
by Michele Saran
5

Pink Mountaintops, progetto parallelo di Stephen McBean (già titolare dei Black Mountain), approda con "Outside Love" – il terzo lavoro su lunga distanza – a un rafforzamento d'intenti. Se con il disco omonimo (2004) e "Axis Of Evol" (2006) il nostro presentava una facciata da factotum, "Outside Love", di nuovo un concept su amore e sesso (stavolta dal punto di vista di un inesistente romanzo d'appendice) apre il suono a una band ad hoc. Assieme al leader ci sono così Ted Bois, Tolan McNeil, Keith Parry, Joh Stevenson, Joshua Wells e la vocalist Ashley Webber (la controparte femminile del canto di McBean).

Soprattutto, in quest'album McBean riesce a stabilire più correttamente i confini tra pop a cappella alla Polyphonic Spree ("Holiday", "Execution" e "Come Down", troppo basate su liriche verbose), sing-along ("Thrones Of Love") e ballate soporifere a due voci ("Outside Love"), madchester sound ("The Gayest Of Sunbeams") e folk-pop lisergico ("While You Were Dreaming").

Se "Vampire" fa il verso ai Rem di "Automatic For The People", il McBean più sincero si trova forse in un paio di lenti lounge sudisti, quali "Closer To Heaven" e il vecchiume Johnny Cash-iano di "And I Think You".

Operetta rock di brilla poetica corale e estetica ruspante, attempata, con una goccia di retronuevo. La miscela, specie per debolezze di scrittura, in più di qualche brano non dà risultati. McBean bussa a tante porte senza aprirne alcuna.

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08/05/2009

This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Michele Saran, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Tracklist

  1. 1. Axis: Thrones Of Love
  2. 2. Execution
  3. 3. While You Were Dreaming
  4. 4. Vampire
  5. 5. Holiday
  6. 6. Come Down
  7. 7. Outside Love
  8. 8. And I Think You
  9. 9. The Gayest Of Sunbeams
  10. 10. Closer To Heaven

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS sul web

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Pink Mountaintops su OndaRock

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