“I may have shit in my smoking jacket,” Noel Gallagher said of hearing Reverend And The Makers’ fifth album Mirrors, comparing it to “the great concept albums of the 60s”.
Either he means it goes well with bowel-loosening drugs or he was blown away at how one-time synth-indie disco destroyer Jon ‘The Reverend’ McClure and gang have embraced the psych revival to create an amorphous ‘journey’ album, drifting between flower power styles like a salvia head-trip.
From the psychotropic Love swirls of Amsterdam, it flits and merges through gnarled Stones funk rock (Black Widow, Blue), Papas pop (Makin’ Babies), Tex-Mex brass fancies (Stuck On You, El Cabrera, carnival romp The Gun) and grand Scott Walker orchestrals (Something To Remember), lingering barely two minutes on any tune before drifting hypnotically away again.
Once again romantic concerns eclipse McClure’s rabid political polemic, but as the Beatledelic melodies of The Trip or Mr Glassalfempty sweep you towards the Doorsian finale of Lay Me Down, this is a record to sink into, not to shock you into action. The Rev’s best.
