Psychedelic Porn Crumpets — SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound — Album Review
Psychedelic Rock | Alternative Rock
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
It was through their third album, titled And Now for the Whatchamacallit, that I first discovered the Australian psychedelic rock band that is Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.
Through said album, I was very easily able to get a good sense of just how whimsical the band truly sounded, and even amongst psychedelic rock counterparts, the Crumpets stood out as uniquely enjoyable.
That very same year, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets followed up said album with a stand-alone single, Titled “Mundungus”, this track marked the fact that the band were already looking towards their next project. Said project would arrive roughly a year and a half later, in the form of their brand new album, SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound.
And while “Mundungus” ignited the teasing towards this new album, it wouldn’t be until the later half of 2020, that fans got the real meat of the matter, when it comes to this album’s teasing. With a consistent helping of releases spanning across mid 2020, to early 2021, each and every on of them suggested that this album was going to be energetic, dynamic, and hard-hitting throughout.
And indeed it was! SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound, upon its full release, felt like a colourful burst of psych-rock explosiveness, which gave off the aura of an intense psychedelic musical trip that pairs well with the visuals of the album cover. If it’s hard hitting bangers you want, hard-hitting bangers is exactly what you get with this new album.
And while this all seems fine and dandy, it does, however, present a small problem; almost all of these tracks, especially in terms of how it aesthetically sounds, feel very similar to one another. This consequently makes SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound feel like a tiny bit of a patience-testing experience, as someone who listened to it all the way through.
The solution to this would’ve been a few more downbeat track here and there, to break things up. However, the more ambient moments on this album are limited to a small cluster of short interludes, and the closing segment of the final track “The Tale of Gurney Gridman”. Other than that, the dynamic nature of this album is given to us in one massive clump, which feels very hard to digest.
The most glaring example of the similarity between tracks on this record, would be “Hats off to the Green Bins”, “Glitter Bug”, and “More Glitter”, which I genuinely thought was just one extensive track on first listen. And with “Glitter Bug” being my most preferred of the three, there felt like very little need for the other two.
I feel like this pretty much the final time that Psychedelic Porn Crumpets can get away with sitting comfortably within their own sound, and in the case of future projects, I would love to hear more tracks like “The Tale of Gurney Gridman”, or at least just push the stylistic boat out a little further.
Nevertheless, the explosive and colourful energy that this album carries in barrel-loads, still allows it to be a highly enjoyable project.
Favourite Tracks: Tripolasaur | Mr. Prism | The Tale of Gurney Gridman
Least Favourite Track: Hats off to the Green Bins
What Reality? | Marathon Artists
Enjoyment: 9/10 | Memorability: 7/10 | Atmosphere: 8/10
Uniqueness: 6/10 | Satisfaction: 7/10 | Narrative: 7/10
