Norwegian Prog-Psych-Jazz-Rock Fusionists Motorpsycho are celebrating the release of their 31st studio album “Yay!,” that is out now on Stickman Records and in Scandinavia & UK through Motorpsycho‘s own label Det Nordenfjeldske Grammofonselskab.
Keeping things unpredictable and weird since 1989, and after a series of epic, sprawling and headphones-friendly albums, Motorpsycho return with a short, reasonably Pop-formatted and intimate album of mainly acoustically based songs. Motorpsycho have always been about the balance between hard and soft, electric and acoustic, big and small, light and shade … and now the time was right for a lighter touch to balance the scales. Yang to the Yin of earlier, more epic works (N.O.X., The Crucible, and Chariot Of The Gods), this is also an album that is relatively easy on the ears, and that actually works really well with a cup of tea at noon.
For once playing the game instead of trying to reinvent it, “Yay!” is clearly a reaction in some way to too much architecture and too many grand visions, and dials the music down to more comprehensive and digestible sizes than have been the band’s métier lately.
In support of today’s record release, Motorpsycho have shared a music video for the song “W.C.A.” The clip is now streaming here:
“Yay!” is a report from the darkest days of Covid (read a full and in-depth statement by the band about the making of “Yay!” HERE), the album’s melancholy combines Motorpsycho‘s trademarked dense guitar walls with naked lyrics sung with unusually great tenderness by someone who’s been there and understands the words. The fantastic retro-futuristic Neo-Psychedelic production by Reine Fiske and Lars Fredrik Swahn (Dungen, Melody’s Echo Chamber, The Amazing et al) brings a sweet Swedish Psych edge to the album, giving it a lysergic tinge and charging what could easily have been a bit too ‘’backporchy” with an electric vibe that lifts it out of the often staid singer/songwriter genre, but still keeping the intimacy intact.
While as ever clearly drawing on inspiration from late 60s/early 70s heroes, Yay! is as indebted to earlier iterations of Motorpsycho as anything else, and will be recognizable to fans of vintage Motorpsychodelia as well as a breath of fresh air to newer Psychonauts that only ever heard the heavy progressive side of the band. “Yay!” is out now and available as CD, as well as red and black LP vinyl edition at THIS LOCATION.
Tracklist:
- Cold & Bored
- Sentinels
- Patterns
- Dank State
- W.C.A.
- Real Again (Norway shrugs and stays at home)
- Loch Meaninglessness & the Mull of Dull
- Hotel Daedalus
- Scaredcrow
- The Rapture
Motorpsycho June 2023 live dates:
Jun 22: Southampton The 1865
Jun 23: London O2 Islington Academy
Jun 24: Colchester Arts Centre
Jun 25: Leeds The Key Club
Purchase tickets: https://motorpsycho.no/gigs/
