Everybody looks better in a uniform! People from all stripes of life find their meaning in being defiant against some large, overbearing, evil force. Take away the dictatorship, and all those people are reduced to leading ordinary lives. That’s boring!
Pop music ain’t exactly what it used to be because not enough people can be convinced of its merits anymore. Yes, there were more people investing all of their earnings into buying records. Sure, there were more people obsessing over whether the cover of “Abbey Road” included clues to Paul’s murder. And, yeah, yeah, prog-rock bands who didn’t write 2-hour pieces about whales weren’t going to be treated seriously.
With odds seriously stacked against musicians determined to make long-form multi-long-play records, Mighty Horse come out smiling and firing their rifles in the air. “Road Movie Dream” is music for people who need to turn off the world and tune into a good story. With staring into a fireplace a much too costly alternative, an ambitious double album is the way to go.
Album opener, “Hey Lah,” hands out tickets for this theatre of the imagination. It makes no sudden movements and welcomes thrill-seekers in. But, next, “Crystal Green” proves that there’ll be enough space-rock to make you want to check the oil on your interplanetary vessel, but plenty of focused songwriting as well.
In fact, if anything, Mighty Horse aren’t so much a colonizing mission of psych-rock exploration, as a vehicle for the exploration of old vinyl collections. You’ll be hearing late-night dub on keep-your-eyes-on-the-road of “Jamaica Dove,” soft country-pop on “Even a Broken Heart is Beautiful,” and dark psych-rock a la Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on the track “33 Revolutions.”
But variety is something that listeners looking to stay plugged to this 18-song strong collection will naturally demand. Hell, even the Deadheads got a different setlist every night.
“Souffle” is a real highlight with its vintage European pop-rock basslines and French-spoken samples. “The Sweetest Thing,” arriving in the middle of the song collection, sounds Spiritualized, trying to make a career in Nashville. And the short burst of punk of “It’s Just a…” is quickly followed by one of the album’s longest track, the jam-rock meets Leonard Cohen of “Blue Out of the Blue.”
In fact, if there’s anything that Mighty Horse do have to get just right, it’s the pacing. Need to keep your eyes open through a midnight drive through the desert or a space flight to Venus? You’d better have your Jamaican dub, punk-rock and psychedelic jam band music sequenced in such a way that it doesn’t get dull. Happy to report that the Melbourne group manages to do that.
Where does it all leave us? Thankfully, not stranded on a joyless, lifeless interstellar satellite. The journey through the night is a long one. But Mighty Horse steers us there with good humour, but half-mad by the time of the near-the-end “Call Centre of the Universe” and still ready to jam it all out on the closer, the bravery and tragedy on the highway melodrama of “Road Movie Dream.”
Watcha doing this evening? Flipping through Netflix gameshows and TikTok vids that show you how to bake a pie? You may well do worse than listen to a loose, spright rock music double album.
