Sometimes with bands, it’s just all second-hand talk regarding how X band-you’ve-never-heard-of sounds like Y genres-you-really-love. But Secret Colours, who, according to no one less than themselves revel in being the bastard seed of the ’60s psychedelia and ’90s Britpop bloodlines, have accurately placed themselves on the line between the two movements they effortlessly amalgamate.
The Chicago band enlisted producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Gomez, Iron & Wine) for their sophomore sojourn toward the place where psychedelia meets pop. Unlike so many bands on the same pilgrimage who end up being described by variances of the word “chill”, Secret Colours turn it up to 11. The group clamor out of the gate on the first few tracks, with “Blackbird (Only One)” calling to mind the Dandy Warhols when they rock the hardest; it’s easy to get lost when the song is steeped in reverb for its last fourth or so, beckoning from a rabbit hole of spiraling guitar. “Euphoric Collisions” and “Lust” both exude sex, as hazy-voiced frontman Tommy Evans sings, “She’s so sexy / makes me crazy” on the former and “Damn / I just can’t stand / The things you do with your hands” on the latter.
But it’s on “Legends of Love”, a song that captures the embalming mood of dazed record store patrons, that embodies what this four-piece is up to on Peach. The band gifts us a track that recalls something of the past, but the way they bend their fuzzy guitars, pound their relentless rhythm, and swim through their kaleidoscopic sound — you can’t even tell it was used.
Essential Tracks: “Blackbird (Only One)”, “Legends of Love”
