KING KHAN & THE SHRINES - Idle No More LP Merge Records
It’s been a while (6 years I think) since the Shrines put out their last album. To be honest, even though I’m a huge fan of the band as a live act, I haven’t cared too much for their records since that amazing debut partyalbum on Voodoo Rhythm “Three Hairs and You’re Mine”. On that album they created an amazing mix of soul and garagerock blended just right with a good amount of frenzy. After that they ventured a bit into funk and psychadelia which didn’t impress me too much. Now they’re back again in 2013 with an album on the relatively big Merge Records. ”Idle No More” takes it’s cues from the 60’s in various shapes and upon first listen you realise they really took their time writing good songs. As a whole this album’s real solid and in some ways it reminds me of the Black Lips latest album “Arabia Mountain”. Solid well-produced garage rock. You can tell they had a bigger budget recording it. It really has a soft kind of sound but it works well. There’s a couple of light-psychedelic garage songs, some more rooted in soul. The ones that I think work best are the ballads with “Pray For Lil” as my fave one. This is a nice little album that’ll get you in a good mood. (Martin)