Elevator

What do you get with an Elevator album? Well, when it comes to August, the trio’s first album since 2002’s Darkness – Light, you get greeted by a pulsing head full of killer space-riffing propulsion, a handful of psych-pop throwback wunderkind and some soulful acoustic moments that recall chief Elevator conductor Rick White’s days in Eric’s Trip. Compared to Elevator’s decade-long discography as psych-rock purveyors, August is probably the most pop oriented yet, with its lengthy middle section consisting of a flurry of psychedelically flavoured garage-rock, from the "stoned in the grass” recollections of "Memories of You” to the drifting and sorrowful "To Cry a River” to the album’s pop standout, the gentle plea to higher regimes that is "Comfort and Joy.” But even when Elevator sees fit to explore their sunnier sides, they still keep things heavy, groovy and intense overall, as the spaceship opening of "Thickwall” and closing rollick of "Where is the End?” dually attests.