Hello. This is Blair from Yellow Matter Custard. I've been asked to review the 2009 album Spring of Hate by the band Setting Son. I know almost nothing about these guys other than that they're from Denmark and from what your lovely host Klemen has told me, they play a garage rock mixed with psych pop. Now if that's not a recipe for a kickass rock 'n' roll album, I don't know what is.
1. Spring of Hate - That's how you open the album, with the title track. Opening on acoustic guitars and bells. And…wow..I never expected the singer's voice to sound like it does. It's like if John Lennon was a 14 year old girl. You can take that as a compliment or an insult, I don't know which myself.
2. Fool My Heart - This song wouldn't be out of place on any modern rock record, if it weren't for the phased backing vocals. They add a delicious 60's flair to an otherwise modern sounding uptempo rock song.
3. Soulmate - Now that's some 60's organ! Opening with a classic Farfisa organ line, this song mixes punchy garage rock with some Eastern like melodies, sounding like Easter Everywhere era 13th Floor Elevators.
4. Obsession - I was hoping this was a cover of The Stones' song Obsession from Between The Buttons. It isn't, but it has a distinct Aftermath/BTB era Stones feel to it. A gritty guitar riff and grooving bass, it's definitely Stones inspired
5. Girl of Sorrow - A slow, hypnotic psychedelic song with reverb guitars and pounding tom drums, it's like something you'd hear in a movie during a scene making fun of the 60's. It's not bad, just a bit too cliche to be truly great.
6. Out of Tune - Once again, the backing vocals make this song stand out. It's kind of a early Who/Kinks song but the backing vocals take it to another place.
7. Creepy Crawlers - My god, that drummer loves that drum beat he does. This is about the 5th song that has the exact same drum beat and this is only the 7th song. It gets a bit much and makes it sound like the other songs on the album.
8. Wrong From The Start - More cheesy Farfisa goodness. The guitars are cranked way up., taking over everything else, except for that organ.
9. Mama Baby - Nothing much to say about this. It falls under the same category as the rest: heavy, really fucking loud, uptempo garage rock.
10. Depression - If they kept up the awesome organ riff from the intro, this would be fucking fantastic. But they don't.
11. Demons In My Head - Ooh, that organ line is kind of progressive, but those watery guitar lines and phased vocals are of course psychedelic.
12. I Lost Control - It's really weird that they ended the album with a slow song. And…never mind. I spoke too soon by 30 seconds it kicks into that heavy, loud up tempo shtick again.
This is good for hardcore psych garage fans, but myself, I'm not a huge fan of this kind of music. In saying that, I respect a band going so balls deep into full on psych garage mode. Now I have a nagging problem with this album. It's not the guy's weird voice, the terribly embarrassing lyrics, or the lack of diversity in the songs. I can deal with that. It's the fucking sonics. Everything is so goddamned loud. An organ might play in the intro, then as soon as the whole band comes in, it's swamped in guitar and drums. I can barely hear the vocalist enough to make him out most times. It's terribly produced and mixed. I'm guessing they produced the album themselves and it sounds very amateurish. I think they just wanted it to be as loud as possible without thinking of dynamics.
Personal Favorites: Nothing really stands out. The majority of the songs sound like each other. But I would say Demons In My Head is pretty cool.
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