Does the cover of Meatbodies‘ new album, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom, feature a ghost tiger? A tiger made of flora? A tiger that lives in the ocean? Or in outer space? I don’t know. I do know, however, that the album is great shoegaze / psych record that made me want to see them live (coming up at Levitation 2024!) as soon as possible.
This album gives the songs time to stretch, but not to the point where you grow weary of them. The opener, “The Assignment,” is a great example. It’s a little over six minutes and is a perfect simmering pot of psychedelic tea that brews, drinks, and infuses into you for the perfect time. Groovy, solid bass builds to a burst of fuzzy tiger fur guitars. “Hole” is another six minutes-plus, and it also doesn’t waste a second of it as Meatbodies advises us to fill the holes in our hearts by letting go of what we wrongly think will fill them. The power of the guitars in it sounds like you could blast holes in concrete with it. And the synths that hit you around the 4:30 mark? Come on! It’s almost not fair.
You can imagine the meaning of “Silly Cybin,” which starts with simple acoustic guitar strumming before it hits you with crushing drums and crashing guitars. The rhythms of “Billow” will help you set sail on whatever, ahem, trip you’re taking (and the guitar solo in it is wild). “They Came Down” hits as heavy as any Ty Segall or Fuzz track.
“Move” is a great rocker that seems to have front man Chad Ubovich thinking about how his lover is moving away from him, but he’s unsure as to how to fix it (“I can count the reasons we don’t talk.”). “Criminal Minds” showcases the band’s love of early tracks from The Cure in its bassline. The growling fuzz of “ICNNVR2” is great, and instantly makes you feel like a bad ass, and the saxophone on it is a great touch that Iggy and The Stooges would love. The squall of guitars on “Psychic Garden” is a neat contract to “(Return of) Ecstasy,” which is almost a Middle Eastern-tinged trippy instrumental. The album ends with “Gate,” opening your mind to something beyond what you’re stuck in at the moment, encouraging you to escape the grind and embrace the ethereal (“Do it now. Take that spin.”).
Again, I don’t know if that’s just a green tiger or a tiger made of seaweed on the cover, but that’s kind of the point. Just flow with it. Get weird with it. Stop worrying and start experiencing.
Keep your mind open.
[Drift over to the subscription box while you’re here.]