THE MYSTERY LIGHTS – Purgatory (2024, LP/CD Wick Records) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label:  Wick Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl 

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Gatefold Cover, Cerebral Crack Color Vinyl (Red/Blue/Green), (comes with Download code)

Format: CD, Album, Digipack

Release Date: 13 Sep 2024

So if you ever wondered “After Dead Moon what?”, the only answer that easily and unhindered comes to mind is, The Mystery Lights! And believe me, this is not big talk! And besides that, this Salinas-California-based-band-relocated-to-Brooklyn-New-York city took it one step further, and probably far more steps. You see, The Mystery Lights not only infused Dead Moon’s raw punk n’ roll with The Stooges’ wild beauty and MC5’s energy, but they successfully managed to embody 60s Garage and Psychedelia into their UNIQUE mix of Rock n’ Roll! And that’s an amazing achievement! And if you add their legendary wild full-of-energy live performances then you have an explosive combination, a musical Molotov… The usual suspects – Mike Brandon (Vocals, Guitar), LA Solano (Guitar), Alex Q Amini (Bass), Zach Butler (Drums), and Lily Rogers (Keys) – are having a new album out called “Purgatory” on Wick Records as their previous two LPs (I’m not counting their 2009 CD album and their 2015 Cassette album). On The Mystery Lights’ Bandcamp page, we find this useful information about “Purgatory”: “The Mystery Lights return with their most ambitious offering to date. With Wayne Gordon back in the producer’s chair, the group delivers an eclectic mix of real-deal psychedelia, punk, art rock, and even a splash of country. There’s a cohesiveness threaded by the elevated musicianship, earnest lyrics, and attention to detail that make for a fiercely raw, yet unabashedly catchy album–dripping with all of the sing-along hooks that have made them one of the most exciting live bands on the scene”…  

“Purgatory” consists of 12 songs, and it kicks off with the eruptive “Mighty Fine & All Mine”, just bring to your mind the basic riffs of a slowed-down Juicy Lucy’s version of “Who Do You Love” and you’ll get the picture! “Memories” is a fine blend of Modern Doo-Wop and some Motown Psychedelia from back in the day (imagine Isaac Hayes’  “Walk On By” but without the haunted guitar riff…). The self-titled “Purgatory” follows, a quite rhythmic start that becomes a daemonic early Psychedelic Stooges reference track, diving to weird Psychedelia for a while, and ending with an atmosphere taken straight out of Stooges’ “We Will Fall”, and before noticing “In The Streets” has already begun, classic old-time 70s N.Y. Punk with super freak-a-delic keys, a distorted groove-a-delicious rhythm that makes me wanna shout “hit me hit me with your rhythm stick, baby!”… “Together Lost” is a moody garage ballad under the spell of a super haunted Organ sound, The Vietnam Veterans would love to have written this one… “Trouble” starts and I think my jaws dropped! Is this a Captain Beefheart flirt? No! This is not only a flirt, but it is also a 100% totally Captain Beefheart-inspired track, it’s a distortically twisted jungle-ish Brain track, and it could easily be an outtake from “Safe As Milk”… The next one “Sorry I Forgot Your Name” is not from the strong moments of the album BUT somehow strangely and magically sticks in your mind, a cool country-ish track with a catchy sing-along melody and a rather Psych-flirting guitar sound, Lee Hazlewood on acid? Maybe… This was the last track of the first side of the LP. For the last 5 songs of the album, The Mystery Lights put on their most colorful Psychedelic Mandle… It seems that they did that on purpose, they wanted to blow our minds, and of course, they succeeded! “Can’t Sleep Through The Silence” is some creepy Psych Weird-o-Delica, dark and punky, so freaking beautiful! “Cerebral Crack” is exactly what the title implies, this is Mind-Expanding Modern Age Psychedelia, hypnotically trippy, ‘67 Psychedelia of the West Coast with an early 70s N.Y. punky edge, and Surely, I lost my mind in here, fook me!!! What an experience! The Psych-Punky balladesque “Automatic Response” follows, the whole atmosphere created here reminds a lot of those amazing crazy slow hazy soundscapes that Dead Moon generously fed us through their active years… “Don’t Want No, Don’t Need No” is full of rhythm, fuzzy and punky, this is exactly how The Monks could have sounded in 2024 if someone asked them to write the follow-up to “Complication”!!! The album comes to an end with the supreme/uppermost “Snuck Out”, it starts with an acoustic guitar and a sing-along attitude, slowly trying for a climax, transformed into a hot moody punk n’ roller, Bo Diddley meets Sean Bonniwell under New York’s Marquee Moon during Twilight time, M-A-G-N-I-F-I-C-E-N-T!!! Go grab it now! It’s probably the Best of the Best Albums of 2024, but we’ll have to wait a couple more months to see if 2024 will beautifully surprise us with another release… TimeLord Michalis

Tracklist

Links:

Listen / Buy through THE MYSTERY LIGHTS Bandcamp

Visit THE MYSTERY LIGHTS Facebook

Alternatively, get it via SHINY BEAST Mailorder

Check TIMEMAZINE’s Best Albums of 2019

Check TIMEMAZINE’s Review of “Too Much Tension” LP