Where do our current times fit in with the old stories of the world? Is this just a moment in time destined to be quickly forgotten, or, like many of our contemporaries believe, part of some ancient prophecy about everything collapsing and slowly decaying into nothing?
There’s not much of a reason to try to find an answer. The important part is that this uncertainty exists in the hearts of many. And whether it’s widespread joy or mass psychosis, the shared emotions of many need an apt soundtrack.
Wade Easy’s mission on the recent album “Sea of Night” is to make a sonic inventory of our shared delusions, our crushed hopes and those anxieties that nibble at our subconscious all of the time.
Just listen to the opening track, “Where the River Sinks,” in the ghostly, whispered vocals pour over the strummed guitar chords like some ancient curse that nobody can either make sense of, nor can ignore.
If you’re looking for a mood piece, for tunes to accompany nocturnal obsessions that play slowly at the back of your eyelids, this might be the record for you. On “Dead Moons,” the blues gets amplified and turns mounrful. This is, perhaps, the album’s most instantly memorable song, one driven by powerful melodies.
And, by the time of “Reviver,” Wade Easy’s minimalist, rootsy-psychedelia leaves the doors wide open for any ghosts to visit. But they’re a welcome sight. It’s each other doing the most damage, scaring one another out of our wits as the retro-tinged, apocalyptic “The Bloody Feet of Atomic Beasts” is keen to remind us.
Still, what is, perhaps, most telling about both the state of the world and of this record is that the music here is, unapologetically, inspired by past glories. The music immediately calls to mind the 1960s psych-rock heroes and their frequent detours into bluesy freakouts.
But, while the musicians who inspired Wade Easy were tripping their way into elevated consciousness and daring to dream of a brave, new world, this is certainly not the mood nowadays. On tracks such as “Sweet Thing,” where its slow, deliberate tempo calls to mind Earth’s sonic experiments, or the ominous-sounding “Saturn Slings a Stone,” Wade Easy’s brand of psych-rock gathers our shared hurt and abysmal disappointment.
Where does it all leave us? It’s an endless night on the human soul, alright. And, right before we drift off, “Here and Tomorrow,” the closing track, shows us a glimpse of what we’ve already lost, and the extent to which we could go on losing. “Sea of Night” is a really strong psych-rock companion on a road nowhere.
