The opening song on the album, "Spanish Beach", starts with (isn't it always?) lonesome pedal steel guitar, immediately putting me in mind of Brian Eno's "Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks", from 1983, and in particular side two of same (ask your parents). This should have come as no surprise, given that the previous Psychic Temple release was a spirited large-ensemble take on Eno's "1/1", from "Music For Airports". So that's fine.
What I really didn't expect, though, was the turn that the song then immediately takes: a turn that takes me back to 1986, and specifically to "Beatrix", the third song on side one of "Treasure", by Cocteau Twins, one of the albums that got me through that year.
"Beatrix" goes like this:
(Actually, to stretch the comparisons in the direction of breaking point, "Spanish Beach" sounds kind of like "Beatrix" by Cocteau Twins as performed by The Blackeyed Susans. So that's two kinds of winning.)
Have a listen. Perhaps I'm imagining all of this. Perhaps you will like the song anyway, on it's own terms. I wouldn't rule that out. It even has a trumpet solo. How eighties can you get?
