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8 points from Saiten Kult
MOTORPSYCHO have neither reinvented themselves with their latest studio album, nor have they radically readjusted themselves by turning away from the tried and tested methods. The Norwegians have summarily got rid of the heaviness of epic and progressiveness for this one work. After all, the group has always been open to surprises.
The core trio around Bent Sæther, Hans Magnus Ryan and Tomas Järmyr, expanded to include Reine Fiske and Lars Fredrik Swahn, did not completely get rid of the expensive coal-fired power plant electricity with ‘Yay!’ and did not record a pure acoustic album, but rather one on acoustic instruments constructed work produced.
The ten new compositions of ‘Yay!’ do not explore the interactions of loud and quiet, but seek their own middle ground. Songs like ‘Cold & Bored’ and ‘W.C.A.’ nestle straight into the pants with the usual Scandinavian warmth – complete with acoustic guitars, harmonic vocals and congas for the rhythm. Likewise, ‘Sentinels’ storms into the viewer’s soul with a zither in the background. ‘Patterns’ even packs the electric guitar and synthesizer gently on top of that, as well as ‘Hotel Daedalus’ the corresponding guitar solo and ‘The Rapture’, so to speak, the violins.
Whoever loves to look at the starry sky stark naked at night, be enchanted by acoustic guitars and dark Scandinavian mellotron sounds as well as heroic harmonies, will get the full pampering program from MOTORPSYCHO.
(8 points)
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8/10 from Artrock.se
I’m not going to say that Norwegian Motorpsycho started to get downright annoying. But on the records that followed the masterpiece “The death-defying unicorn” – released in 2012 together with experimental compatriot Ståle Storløkken and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra – the listener has increasingly been able to sit back in the certainty that you know what you’re getting. That is, heavy, swinging melodic, controlled flume with at least one trip around the world per album. It’s generally been very good, too, but this is still a band that, over its thirty-plus years, has had variation as a code of honor. Country? Certainly! Indie pop? Absolutely.
That’s why it’s great that we’re now treated to a basically acoustic album from the troika. The music is still sticky melodious and hallucinatory hypnotic. But the fact that you rest on a bed of clear-voiced, acoustic guitars creates new freshness. It’s 1960s rather than taken from the decade after. “Real again (Norway shrugs and stays at home)” sounds like it was taken from “The Who sell out” (1967) while “Loch meninglessness & the Mull of Dull” (exquisite titles!) echoes of Simon and Garfunkel, but with an Indian twist. And the ensemble can’t refrain from a relatively long drive: “Hotel Daedalus” is just over seven minutes of heavy-rocking Motorpsycho as we’ve come to know them; wonderfully pompously symphonic, but perhaps even more melodious than usual. The play in question will probably get a place of honor on my annual list at the end of 2023, while “Yay!” on the other hand, probably Motorpsycho’s strongest album since said “…Unicorn”.
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Funny reviews. The first one mostly says what NAY! is not, while the second one I disagree with almost everything said except about the new album. Nice reading though. Thanks, Punj!
“Yay!” on the other hand, probably Motorpsycho’s strongest album since said “…Unicorn”.
That’s a pretty bold statement.
Looking forward to this album even more.Yay!” on the other hand, probably Motorpsycho’s strongest album since said “…Unicorn”.
Hmmm. Sounds scary to me. No more unicorn please!
Horribly written, but hey….9/10! :)
I support that. There are much clumsier reviews out there – and this one gives you a good idea of the album – and the reviewers feelings instead of just a reviewers writing qualities show-off. I’m positively curious…
7/10
Break from shift work
The Norwegians from Motorpsycho have always been busy. Much to the delight of their loyal fans, they reliably present album after album and, despite all the quantity, don’t forget the quality. From 2019, the band even increased their productivity again, starting with “The Crucible” a stringent annual rhythm was struck. This definitely requires discipline from the inclined audience, because the full processing of their works does not succeed on the side. So now: “Yay!” as the successor to the fine predecessor “Ancient astronauts”, which tended towards the overflowing format. The album contained only four songs, which nevertheless made it to almost an impressive three-quarters of an hour. “Yay!” goes a different way: Motorpsycho shook themselves up and threw off a lot. What has remained: its great class. “Cold & bored” and “Sentinels” at the start present the band resolutely in an acoustic guise, which isn’t bad news despite all the reduction. Of course, Motorpsycho basically live from the shift work, when the songs unfold more and more powerfully and sometimes almost end up in chaos before everything is brought together again. But even this reserved, completely simple (and certainly not simple-minded) expression of her work has its undeniable appeal. “Patterns” as the first big highlight on “Yay!” but then also shows directly that Bent Sæther, who wrote all the songs, doesn’t like to exaggerate with the reticence. Later on, it gets very intimate when Sæther takes a look at the Corona period in “Real again (Norway shrugs and stays at home)” on the basis of a guitar that is only used hesitantly: “Now we’re hanging out in different rooms / All pretending to cherish meetings on Zoom / Supposed to strengthen all our ties / But your faces all seem demoralized / I can see the light growing dim in your eyes.” The heaviness of the content and the musical lightness are brought into perfect harmony here. Sæther and his comrades-in-arms continue to creatively live out the joy of variety. “Hotel Daedalus”, for example, comes very close to the typical Motorpsycho sound in the second part of the album and can be described as almost overflowing in comparison to the rest of the work, not only because of its length of almost eight minutes.
“Yay!” is by the way the first album after the Norwegians announced the departure of drummer Tomas Järmyr. However, he is still involved here, as are Reine Fiske and Lars Fredrik Swahn from time to time. At the very end, in the final “The rapture”, Motorpsycho sum up the album: “Days are getting longer, summer’s almost here / I thank my guardian angels we survived another year / When summer rolls around again / I’m gonna lay my head back in the grass / And count my blessings one by one, and hope it won’t be my last.” Summers come, summers go – and Motorpsycho just keep doing what they do best: reliably great art.
Not a review, but a long interview with NRK.
https://www.nrk.no/kultur/xl/motorpsycho-ga-nesten-opp-_-na-kommer-de-med-en-_varplate_-1.16433836
good reading
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