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This album was a lot of fun for me.
I am, first and foremost, a massive massive Beatles fan. Born into it (named after Sean Lennon, because my dad
is a huge Lennon stan). I always find myself getting lost in their music, particularly that 66-68 period. It's simultaneously very *of*
it's time, and very ahead of its time, and very outside it's time. I've always wanted to tackle a sort of "genre" pastiche for 60s pop,
and after a moderate-to-severe obsession with Pet Sounds, SMiLE/Smiley Smile & Surf's Up, I knew it was the time to get to work on new
material.
The idea was (obviously) to ape the sounds of Baroque Pop groups pusing the envelope from 1966-1968. Almost in the same spirit as my 90s
library music stuff. I had lots of material sitting around, which I could finally give a home, and I definitely wanted to try some new (old)
ideas.
Prelude & Finale were done at the same time, just screwing around with a few Mellotron tapes and improvising until something sorta formed.
I was trying to evoke the feeling I'd get pulling out an album from this era as a kid, or maybe popping in a tape of an old movie or TV special and
hearing the music. Defintely just trying to set the tone moving forward...
Closer to You is a re-imagined version of the very first song I released back in 2016, but with a Pet Sounds/Phil Spector-y Wall of Sound arrangement.
that and Sunday Evening are both cut from the same cloth in that regard. We love a good harpsichord.
Too Bad is probably the only true, like, pre-Revolver inspired Beatles ripoff here. I am a massive Help! fan (its probably my #1, maybe Magical Mystery
Tour but it's close). My Dad managed to get me a 1967 Hofner 500/1 Bass for my birthday just a few months earlier so it makes its first appearance here and man is that
a great sound. Strange/Broken leans very much into 66/Revolver-era with its reversed guitar and tape loops. Lots of tape delay abuse on this one and lots of space
for the Hofner to shine. In the same way, From the Parlor is so very painfully aping the Baroque Pop style of For No One.
The Socialite & Jet Setter are both inspired by my love for cheesy 50s/60s lounge and exotica (and the brief 90s revival). In The Socialite I specifically sought
out the voice tape from the Chamberlin because years ago I remember being enthralled by the tape being used at the end of Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye and thought this would
be a perfect opportunity for it. The working/demo title for Jet Setter was originally "my grandparents would love this" because by the time I was done with the main motif, it
reminded me of a Herb Alpert tune, which immediately reminded me of spending time with my grandparents.
Top of the World, Operator...? & Classless are me wearing my "Holy shit I love Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album" t-shirt, and "I HEART MCcART(ney)" hat.
From tones, instrumentation, production (best I could), I was shooting to reproduce a sound and atmosphere that took me to other worlds as a little kid listening to MMT
in my bedroom on a hot summer evening roughly 20 years ago.
Wild Laughter itself smells like Surf's Up a bit, but I'd like to think it sorta wraps up everything in the album into one penultimate track. The name of the song (and album)
are pulled from a line from Henry David Thoreu's "Walden" in which, during a feud with a Loon on Walden Pond, he describes the bird's call:
In the fall, the loon came, as usual, to moult and bathe in the pond, making the woods ring with his wild laughter.
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mouse over to flip record
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