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Rating: 12 out of 15
According to Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan, MOTORPSYCHO currently have the feeling that they have just started making music because they still have so much to say – mind you after a good 30-year band history! With their new album, the Norwegians show another facet of their shapeshifting self and, to a certain extent, also put up an alternative to their last two or three long players, which were thoughtful and tied to complex content concepts. The short and concise title “Yay!” says nothing direct and yet says a lot: The material is comparatively uncomplicated and prompted its creators to make this exclamation precisely because they had so much fun writing and recording the predominantly acoustic and traditionally song-oriented songs. The barely expansive tracks are focused on the lyrics and kept in the best singer-songwriter tradition, although the musicians’ Psych-Prog background still shines through.
“Yay!” bursting with different flavors, is colorful like its cover – ‘Cold & Bored’ comes in two parts, Mediterranean or Latin-like, ‘Sentinels’ mostly instrumental (the band still remains committed because they couldn’t jam freely while working on the songs ) and ‘ Dank State ‘ buoyantly sunny in the spirit of the Beatles’ psychedelic pop at their peak. In keeping with this, most of the texts tell more or less banal everyday stories with a wink and quite serious overtones; Brittle melodies and percussion elements are among the mainstays of the album, for example in ‘W.C.A’ or the summery finale ‘The Rapture’. The only heavy rocker ‘Hotel Daedalus’ – with ‘Kashmir’ flair (Led Zeppelin) – is at the extreme end of the range of MOTORPSYCHO anno 2023, the weird love song ‘Loch Meaninglessness & the Mull of Dull’ and the melancholic ballad ‘ Real Again (Norway shrugs and stays at home)´ on the other. CONCLUSION: With “Yay!” MOTORPSYCHO go a little way back into the song-like years of their work and present a basically acoustic album that Reine Fiske and Lars Fredrik Swahn (Dungen and others) refined with a wonderfully intimate production. The result is, in the best sense of the word, quirky folk-prog-pop for a wider audience than usual, although the band’s handwriting remains recognizable at all times.
5/6 from Norway Rock Magazine
A warmish YouTube review from Notes Reviews. He likes their proggiest stuff. (Someone tell him how to pronounce ‘Daedalus’.)
I don’t get why there’s not more love for Kingdom of Oblivion. It’s a great album!
A loving review of Yay! and also Ingvald Vassbø’s take on his favourite Motorpsycho songs. Now’s The Time
Thanx Thor! Great link!
And thanx Ingvald for letting us know that much insides. Very intersting. Looking forward to see him in Germany. He seems to be a very nice guy and very familiar with the (drum-)sound of MP.Excellent article by Ingvald. He sure learned a few more words since I last met him. “Johann Snahbastian Ryan”! ;-)
Looking forwart to the European MP gigs…
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