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Album Reviews
Album Review: Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love (Jagjaguwar)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 4 May 2009
Stephen McBean takes yet another break from the brilliantly dirty Black Mountain to give us this third effort from Pink Mountaintops, which wipes the diesel off the blues of his regular band, and kisses it better. Well, slightly. These are still the words of damaged goods, twisting hate and lust, with epic, skyscraping accompaniment, and Pink Mountaintops really is the perfect name for this band. ‘Axis: Thrones of Love’ lures you in, floating in a head of confused romance, with McBean’s own coarse tones set against the feminine softness of the vocals of Amber Webber. And as these two distinct voices duel, so does the distortion with the clean, the chaos with the comfort. ‘Execution’ and ‘The Gayest of Sunbeams’ turn up and hit the effects pedal, taking the listener into the sweet territory of My Bloody Valentine. But ‘While You Were Dreaming’ and ‘And I Thank You’ are more delicate fodder, moving on from the shoegazing to Ryan Adams style folk; it’s coming down from the mountaintops and back to the ranch. This record is a journey of plains and plateaus, peaks and troughs, and all of it so beautiful, you can’t help but just take a minute to let it be all you can think about. TM
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