ALBUM REVIEW: The Waydown – Big Scenic Nowhere
The term ‘supergroup’ is often looked upon with scorn in many musical circles. In the past, it has been used to label bands created out of other, already successful, bands to allow the members to essentially writhe about in their own inflated ego juice and, more often than not, disappear up their own bottoms – looking at you HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES. At best, a supergroup might put out a half-decent album before performing the aforementioned vanishing-into-the-anus act. VELVET REVOLVER, for example, or AUDIOSLAVE.
BIG SCENIC NOWHERE, however, proves itself a real exception to the rule. Formed by members of desert and stoner rock royalty like FU MANCHU, YAWNING MAN and MOS GENERATOR, their third album – The Waydown – is a masterwork of modern psychedelic rock which might just provide the ideal antidote to the dark and stormy winter nights that have blanketed the Northern Hemisphere recently.
The record opens with the title track, which, after a minimal intro, instantly opens up into a blissed-out, spacey rock anthem, the rhythm section of Tony Reed (bass and vocals) and Bill Stinson (drums) settling into a huge groove throughout the opening verses that really gives the song an insistent drive, perfectly complementing the fuzzy riffing of Bob Balch and Gary Arce. The song progresses (no pun intended) into more experimental territory in its second half, really showcasing the creativity of the assembled musicians without ever veering off into boring-widdly-jam territory. In fact, some of the riffs in this section go harder than most and it’s easy to sense the fun that Balch and Arce are having with each other here.
That sense of fun, of brightness, of sunshine continues on second track Summer Teeth. Starting with shimmering, jangling guitars that bring to mind classic West Coast psychedelic, it soon powers into a huge chorus, where Reed’s vocals are really given the space to shine, the multilayered harmonies lifting this record further into the stratosphere. There is a reflective melancholy sprinkled in there too, though, which becomes more obvious on second listen and which encourages you to explore these songs multiple times. The keyboard and synth work of ex-OPETH man Per Wiberg only embellishes the atmosphere further.
Surf Western again returns to a more driven, riff-laden approach and you can’t help but feel here that somehow the band have managed to combine the spacier sounds of YAWNING MAN with the dirtier, scuzzier groove of FU MANCHU to create something that sounds fresh, exciting and – yes – uplifting. It’s not too often that this genre produces music that puts a smile on your face but this album does it in droves. It transports you to the edge of a desert just after sunset, you and your friends awestruck by the size of the landscape and the scale of the starfield above you, all the while nodding along to these songs as your moonlit soundtrack.
It is perhaps surprising how cohesive the vibe on this record is, not only due to the jammed approach to songwriting (although that is less obvious here than on their previous work) but also as these songs have their origins in all sorts of time and places, some going as far back as 2018. That this feels so much like an album, rather than just a collection of random songs from over the years, is credit to the band and to Tony Reed himself for doing such a great job mixing and mastering the whole thing together and to Heavy Psych Records, a label which continues to push the boundaries of retro-influenced heavy music.
The only thing that stops this album being a perfect score is the cover of HALL AND OATES’ Sara Smile (featuring original HALL AND OATES keyboardist Eliot Lewis), which, whilst an excellent slice of 70s easy listening, really doesn’t sit well alongside these other rockier, more progressive pieces. Despite that anomaly, this is a fantastic record that is even greater than the sum of its parts and is one that should absolutely find its way on to the turntable of any fans of heavy, groovy, psychedelic music that you may know. Man.
Rating: 9/10
The Waydown is set for release on February 2nd via Heavy Psych Sounds.
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