Megan's Top 18 of 2008 - #15 - Darker My Love

Take Deep Purple's cover of "Hush", the Beach Boys (circa the early 60s), the Dandy Warhols' "Be-In"-era pysch-heavy sprawl, dashes of the Beatles and the Stones, throw it all into a blender with some hard liquor, and you're getting warmer. With sophomore effort 2, California's Darker My Love (complete with Virginia transplant!) paints a pretty picture of swirling, booming soundscapes full of voluminous waves of heavy, crunching guitars, twinkling of the (electronic) ivories, and tunes drenched in reverb and perfectly muddied vocals. Oh, and they know how to harmonize, too.

In other words, 2 is a fucking awesome album.

They belong among the best of the nouveau psychedelics, but unlike bands like the Black Angels and Black Mountain, there's less of a far out element, less frenzy among all the noise. There's no threatening to veer out of control.

I've got a handful of favorites begging to be brought to your attention, so consider yourself highly encouraged to give special attention to "Talking Words", "Northern Soul", "Blue Day", "Two Ways Out", and "Pale Sun". Of course, the rest of the record's not too shabby, so you might also wanna listen to the whole thing. Many, many times.