Thee Oh Sees - (2012) Putrifiers II

 In The Red Recordings ‎– 235

Not sure what else to say really at this point about John Dwyer and Thee Oh Sees crew. We've loved pretty much everything they've put out, we've made at least one an aQ Record Of The Week, heck, Andee even put out the very first Thee Oh Sees record (back when it was just Dwyer and was a whole 'nother beast simply called OCS), but as with every record, Putrifiers II has much to recommend it, and has a lot of cool stuff going on, that definitely makes it super distinctive, and as seems to be the case, with every new record, we find ourselves proclaiming it our favorite, and looks like that trend is going to continue, cuz Putrifiers II is so great. All it should take is a minute or two of opener "Wax Face", with its spidery snake charmer melody that leads directly into some seriously fuzzed out garage rock pound, super melodic, with swoonsome falsetto vox, woozy basslines, and of course hooks galore. The song gets all droney, and psychedelic, with some killer leads, and a killer stretch midsong where the vocals harmonize with the guitar, we're tempted to say it's the raddest jam yet, but that would be foolish with nine more songs to go! (That's right, this is a ten song "ep", more like a full-length really.)

The one thing that Putrefiers does display, is a definite sixties pop vibe, from the fuzzy almost Elephant Six sound of "Hang A Picture", to some of the other tracks that take the Beach Boys and run them through an old beat up distortion pedal and douse them liberally with sweat and blood, taking the hooky dreaminess and harnessing it to some serious psych fuzz bliss. The whole record is brimming with amazing songs and sounds, "So Nice" is a gorgeous bit of buzz drenched balladry, with some swirling strings and weird processed vox, "Cloud #1" is some super abstract minimal drone music, that reminds us of Amps For Christ, "Flood's New Light" is total girl group worship, while the title track is a gorgeously catchy reverb heavy garage pop dirge that is WAY catchier than it has any right to be.

The final four songs definitely make up a sort of orchestral garage pop suite, the woozy shimmery ballroom vibe of "Will We Be Scared", the fuzzed out chug and churn of "Lupine Dominus", which has verses that would be right at home in a much dreamier, less tripped out and psychedelic pop song, "Goodnight Baby" is another string driven bit of jangly power pop, and finally, "Wicked Park" is lush and lovely baroque popsmithery, that sounds like it could be a cover of The Zombies, or even some old Bee Gees B side.