Since the mid-'80s,
the Telescopes have been steadily expanding the boundaries of their distinctive brand of noisy psychedelia, evolving from thick barrages of noise rock in their earliest days into more subtle, dreamy pop as the years went on. After some mid-2000s experimentation with electronic soundscapes, the band returned to the heavy, droning noise rock of their earliest days, with records like 2017's
As Light Return and 2019's
Exploding Head Syndrome embracing lurching tempos and hypnotic songs, informed by the same demented blues perspectives that guided
Spacemen 3 and recorded like the band was playing in a garage several houses away. Twelfth studio album
Songs of Love & Revolution continues the group's fixation with noise-dazzled psychedelic drone rock, but the production is clearer and the songs hit with direct impact. Tracks like "Strange Waves" and the propulsive "We See Magic and We Are Neutral, Unnecessary" (the latter of which originally appeared as a one-sided 7" in 2012) are blasts of heavily effected feedback driven by unwavering, repetitive bass lines. While the sound is still caustic psychedelic blues in the vein of
Telescopes peers like
Loop or
Flying Saucer Attack, it's less muddy, allowing for different textures of fuzz to interact with the minimal rhythms. Bandleader
Stephen Lawrie's versatile songwriting has long split
the Telescopes' output between noisy assaults and more understated, softly lit songs, and
Songs of Love & Revolution explores a gradient of volume and tension with several tracks that are less noisy, yet sometimes just as intense as the rockers. "You're Never Alone with Despair" is a slow crawl through depression on par with the darkest moments of early
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, while the brighter "Mesmerized" moves gently between light taps of tambourine and waves of guitar scrawl borrowed from the Velvet Underground & Nico.
Songs of Love & Revolution doesn't quite fall under the banner of shoegaze, but
the Telescopes have always stayed consistently outside of easily definable genres, watching trends come and go for over 30 years while focusing on their own craft. These nine songs are some of the most neatly rendered of the band's post-2010 output, but lose none of their mind-bending effect in the production upgrade. If anything, the album finds
the Telescopes delivering their messages of self-discovery and cosmic love louder than ever. ~ Fred Thomas