Family Average: 4/7

Don’t worry your pretty little face. The Jimmies have come. They’re so thin, so in control, truly fine Mitchel specimens. Woah, sorry about that I have ingested well over fifteen Advil. Things are starting to go pear shaped so I will try and keep this to the point. Psychedelic fun times are to be had with The Jim Mitchells! While we are on the topic of looking inside psychedelic things. Enjoy this video of people pulling apart a lava lamp.

Did the family have a good trip? Listen along on Their Bandcamp and read on to find out:

An interesting sort of dichotomy this album is. The sound is mismatched whereas the guitar sounds like southern folksy 60s music, I hear the Byrds even a little of the Grateful Dead, psychedelic, but with a slow, sunny, lazy 60s sound. Then the vocals are the new psychedelic sound reminiscent of Tame Impala or Foxygen even MGMT. On top of that, they have a bit of an experimental element, with those ambient noises, that adds to their modernness. The result is some nice music. Very rhythmic, I feel like all the sounds are supposed to be there. Satisfying, makes you feel nice.

In the modern psychedelic genre, they have their own sleepy, summery, rocking-chairs-on-a- front-porch sound.

They’re Australian which makes sense but also doesn’t, because of their conflicting sounds.

Surfy too but like old big wave surfy.

Very into what they have created.

5/7

Woah hold up, woah now, what year is it?! The Jim Mitchells’ Love Hypnotic has me all spinned around. We open and right away (and by right away I mean about 1:25 into the first track) I realize that I’m in for a psychedelic, hippie trippy album.

I’ve been working in corporate america too long to give into the trippy sounds of the 60’s for the first initial tracks, but by “Where Is?” The Jim Mitchells have won me over. It’s mostly thanks to the wonderful structure of the song. Same goes for “We’re Up High”; it had me bopping around in my cubicle and wanting to run around the corner to snag a drag off a weekday joint (or I guess vape since its 2019 now). Kind of lost me with the next two tracks, “Easy Love” and “Got to Believe”. The structure falls away and there’s nothing for me to hang on to. Ah but we’re not done yet, because “Magnetic” swung me back in with that sexy AF intro.

As the album closes out with “(...She’s Why) I’ve got a stupid little grin on my face and falling into patches of sunshine that I might have otherwise missed on another average workday.

 Thanks, Love Hypnotic, for reminding me it’s okay to get lost in the music.

3/7

This right here is an example of how to pull off a successful floaty swirly psychedelic soft rock album. Welcome, all my flower children. Put your circular sunglasses in a neat pile, and sit cross-legged in a field. That would be an ideal time to have this album come on really loud.

Oh, The Jim Mitchells. I am doing my darndest to remember classic phrases from the sixties. Things like Sock it to me, and groovy, and yeah all that. Because I would like them to come up in my review. Then again unlike this album that would sound a little stilted.

Anyway, allow me to carry on. With song titles like “We’re Up High”, “Easy Love”, and “Got to Believe” there is no doubt This Australian band is here to bring good vibes. Big surprise all the good vibes get brought. They come in the form of reverb-soaked vocals and rumbling guitars.

No doubt they are doing it well. At the same time, what else is going on here? It is a bit of a shame when a band shows they have such fantastic control over their sound, and they stick to the usual conventions. When approaching a genre that has had massive success in the past there should be some signs of innovation.  

3/7

Be still my hippie heart. The second Love Hypnotic opened, I could feel the sun on my face, could smell the palo santo and was sat in the middle of a field with a collection of euphorically happy individuals.

Joking aside, I’m a big lover of ‘60s psychedelic rock, and this album feels like a love letter to that bygone era. I don’t care that this album does nothing particularly new for the genre. Like a more blissed out, quieted down version of the Allah-Las, it played right into the classic tropes in the best way. I enjoyed each rose-tinted minute.

It’s groovy with just the right amount of haze, with a lovely bit of bass guitar that deserves a shout out for its steady bounce. Not to mention that champ of a rhythm guitar.  The pace moves fluidly, languidly, and is drenched in harmonies. There’s a few slow starters, but overall it feels like a pretty faultless and well-polished (albeit traditional) showcase of some psych soft rock. Good stuff.

5/7