I was first exposed to Love Psychedelico in January 2002, attracted by the classy monochrome Liechtenstein noir artwork hanging from every lamp post in Shibuya and trying to figure out what language the woman whose voice was being beamed down from the speakers on every street corner was singing in.

This is but one of the fundamental dichotomies at the heart of this mysterious band. Further examination revealed that the song in question ("Standing Bird" from their second album "Love Psychedelic Orchestra"), like all their songs and like much J-Pop, is sung in a mixture of Japanese and English. The waters are nevertheless muddied by singer Kumi's hard-to-trace Anglo-American-Irish singing voice. I found myself amused by such unwittingly amusing Spinal Tap lines as "green light, hang tight, high tide, breaking wind" (tee hee) and annoyed by such abject nonsense as "somewhat of ride and roll" (eh??!?!!?). I found myself both intrigued and appalled by the simultaneous catchiness of the tune and the horrifying resemblance I perceived to "Rumours" era Fleetwood Mac (God have mercy on my soul).

I bit the bullet, bought both their albums second-hand and from then onwards my relationship with the music of Love Psychedelico hung in a precarious balance which this third album does nothing to alter. The occasional bursts of English lyrics are meaningless and annoying and their taste in influences is still a bit AOR but their virtues also remain intact. Despite the so-clean-it-squeaks production, the album maintains the homemade feel of their previous work and fills out the sound through skilful use of overdubs, an effect best captured on the Britney Spears pastiche "All Over Love" and on the overlapping guitar patterns of "Neverland", the only actually psychedelic song on the album and also the best. Elsewhere "Happiness" is like mid-period REM with a nifty little heart-surge hook tucked into the chorus and is a stand-out. The introduction of R&B and a hint of dance music into the mix is an intriguing hint of things to come but most of the album treads over old ground with pleasant familiarity but a nagging lack of direction and at nearly an hour's length, it could stand more than a little pruning. -Ian Martin, Feb.28.04

Love Psychedelico 3