Pals of fellow Brooklyn psych-pop pups, MGMT, Amazing Baby's debut suggests that they've taken a slightly more experimental trip than their tie-died associates.
Absent in the mainstream appeal of 'Oracular Spectacular', the East Coast quintet discard any Andrew VanWyngarden knock-off preconceptions by providing a spaced out, hallucinogenic trip that dribbles like a drugged Love mounting Yeasayer's various eclectic echoes. Stoned bliss shines through the grittiness of 'Deerripper' while album opener 'Bayonets' takes a bench-mark making stance with an Elvis Costello-like vocal performance over a multi-coloured psych-pop backdrop.
The fact that this band's own dreamy prog-pastiche can range from kaleidoscopic Zeppelin-like detonations to Bowie driven post-rock starry-eyed glamour is an achievement in itself, what is not however, is Amazing Baby's irresolute and wavering search for a solid musical identity.
We're not talking generic labels of pop and rock here, just singer Will Roan's lack of vocal consistency. One minute he's chirping melodically on 'Invisible Palace' the next he's slouching it on 'Dead Light'. It's nit-picking a little but there's something a slightly capricious about it that drowns out some level of integrity which suggests Amazing Baby have tried to cover too many bases.
Overall though, pretty darn majestic.
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