Merciful Monks/High All The Time/Amphetamine Gazelle/Eastern Light/Wind Chimes/The War Goes On/Hush Julian
Self titled debut album from the Ohio psychedelic rock group Mad River. Their music had a dark edge to it with several extended jamming sessions let down by some poor vocals.
“The longer songs are all pretty much perfect but the shorter numbers won't disappoint the psych fanatics either. The album feels just like the album cover looks. So expect a very dark and pretty slow psychedelic rock sound. I've heard far better vocalists inside the psychedelic rock scene than this singer who sounds a bit tired at times. If you are an acid rock fanatic, and you really love the late 60s psychedelic music, you've got to give Mad River's great debut a try.”
“The music is occasionally quite neat, but the singer is just embarrassing to listen to." “Much of this music is built around songs but some are stretched out to be as much instrumental as anything else, especially side two of the album. They range from blues-rock, prog to avant-garde and the guitar playing is pretty adventurous, using some striking dissonances. There's a dark and brooding atmosphere throughout, the antithesis of sunshine-pop, deadly serious and free of parody. However, the vocals are a little overbearing and some meandering passages seem over-indulgent.”
“My best description of it would be disjointed, as it is a very diverse, non-commercial offering, with some strong psych influences on most of the record.”
“The band is dark, smoking, brooding and on fire. Ideas are excellent, presented tightly, these tracks rock, creep, spook and surprise with a very heavy lysergic influence. The singing just kills it for me, however.”
“Plain bizarre. I am not into West-Coast psychedelia at all but this album is fascinating in its weirdness. Typically this band weren't able to write songs but the mood of the record is so very dark and distorted it makes up for the lack of songwriting skills.”
“Some of the songs are nightmarish and the topics and playing explore dark themes. Its quite ominous and evil sounding in a way.”
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