YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS - Loft

Despite raging through American college radio in the 80s, Young Fresh Fellows never managed to move beyond cult status, and frontman Scott McCaughey is probably better known for his later project Minus 5, a steady collaboration with Peter Buck and, on and off, various members of Wilco — all musicians who have earned far more recognition than their colleague, who nonetheless holds the title of "fifth R.E.M. member" between 1994 and 2011, on top of being a key player in various side projects such as Tuatara, The Baseball Project and Venus 3, backing Robyn Hitchcock. Despite a thoroughly respectable résumé, then, not many people were eagerly awaiting the return of McCaughey's first band, which, more than forty years after its debut, shows up in enviable shape with an album that reinterprets a sound rooted in the 60s through the distorting, postmodern lens typical of the mirror-image 90s — a formula that's perhaps not especially innovative, but one that, thanks to an unexpectedly strong dose of inspiration, still shines in an increasingly complex and fragmented musical landscape where anything goes these days.

While the opening "Overture" paints a dreamlike landscape through baroque arrangements in the style of the Beatles' blue compilation, but made hallucinatory by a jazz-soaked Flaming Lips, the band immediately snaps us back to reality with the following proto-grunge jab "I'm A Prison", as sharp and cutting as a track by Wipers. Still, the psychedelic streak later resurfaces in the details of several tracks with a crooked indie-rock gait (the lysergic refrain of "Killing Time In Union Square") or in the ironic country-style backing reminiscent of Camper Van Beethoven ("Three Gasconading Saints"), before finally exploding on "Death Becomes Us", which plays almost like a reworking of the legendary "Tomorrow Never Knows", complete with the full hallucinogenic arsenal of hypnotic rhythms, reversed sounds and raga-like touches, in a psych-pop celebration steeped in sonic and conceptual references (it's no coincidence that the Fab Four's track was inspired by the "Tibetan Book of the Dead").

A learned name-dropper and heir to rock's great golden age, but also a playful storyteller, McCaughey manages to entertain and shake up the listener by ramping up the tempo with the buoyant beat of "Destination" (featuring Neko Case), which then morphs into the unhinged garage-pop party of "Whispering Hole", while at the same time showing off an enviable, unexpectedly refined class on the aching piano ballad "Books Don't Burn Twice", an instant classic that would break through on any radio station (not just alternative ones), or on the polished, jazzy arrangement of brushes and vibraphone on "Harpoon in the Hay". Closing the circle of references is the final ballad "Exit Music/The Theme", where the band's various souls converge, sounding as though it came from a parallel reality in which Lennon plays and sings alongside Wayne Coyne, before giving way to an evocative, cinematic instrumental passage that wraps up a journey marked by great authorial ambition, steeped in an at times hallucinatory charm, yet always contained within a pop framework that's consistently effective and never overdone.

While "Loft" won't rank among the year's standout or most anticipated albums, and won't fully redeem the none-too-fortunate history of Young Fresh Fellows and their frontman, it nonetheless reveals the innate, at times downright brilliant, and by no means dulled talent of a band absolutely worth (re)discovering.

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04/05/2026