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Love Psychedelico - This Is Love Psychedelico

<em>This Is Love Psychedelico</em> cover

Retro rock duo Love Psychedelico sometimes titles their Japanese CDs confusingly. You'd have to be familiar with them to know The Greatest Hits is actually their debut album and Early Times is the real hits collection. Their foray into the U.S. market, a compilation released by Hacktone Records, has a newbie-friendly title: This is Love Psychedelico. The album introduces America to 'Delico's distinct combination of Rolling Stones-style music with British-accented shout-singing.

This is Love Psychedelico pares down the band's catalogue to thirteen of their most impressive single and album tracks. Early recordings like "Lady Madonna" have ear-pleasing simplicity and rawness, while "Standing Bird" and "Everybody Needs Somebody" flesh out their catchy hooks with layered vocals and slick production. "Neverland," one of Love Psychedelico's darkest and most ambitious songs, builds from a skeleton to a full rocker while vocalist Kumi sings in a plaintive whisper. The all-English lyrics of songs like "'O'" provide accessibility to the J-rock uninitiated target audience. Love Psychedelico promo photo

What's strange is that all the songs are from 2004 or earlier. The track list does not include anything from their 2007-released fourth album, which sounds like Sheryl Crow's music. Perhaps there's a good reason for this omission, but it's odd for an introductory compilation to reflect only 'Delico's old music.

Still, This is Love Psychedelico's solid tracklist is enough to compel first-time listeners to check out the rest of the band's discography. And by then they'll know what to expect from The Greatest Hits.

- Victoria Goldenberg

Images courtesy of Victor Records.