Something happened on No. The early EPs from Baltimores Tomato Flower were pretty, dreamy psychedelia. Warm to the touch, like looking up at the trees on a cloudless day. On No, the four-pieces debut album, those trees, that cloudless sky, have become haunted, thorny, stormy. It takes Tomato Flower from buttoned-up, almost technically formalist psych pop to something more urgent, raw, emotionally immediate. No is messier, more expansive, and through all of its chaos, the bands most rigorous artistic statement to date.
No is the bands first effort made entirely in person, the first thing tracked in a studio instead of in a bedroom. It is a highly collaborative record written and recorded by everyone, partially made live. It is very much the byproduct of a band that has done some serious touring, following a coast-to-coast tour with Animal Collective in the summer of 2022.
Lead single Destroyer, has Jamison Murphy practically screaming over angular guitars, oscillating in a sonic space somewhere between the prettiness of Broadcast and the sludge of Jesus Lizard. It also presents an early entry point to one of Nos major conceptual underpinnings: that of the breakup between Murphy and fellow co-lead vocalist and guitarist Austyn Wohlers, which occurred during the composition of the album.
It wouldnt be fair to just call No a break up album. Its far more complicated with that. No is a record about negation: I will not do this, you cannot tell me what to do, we are not living in a utopia, dont be delusional. No embraces a kind of brutal realism, a confrontation of life that only happens when you wizen up a little bit. All of it is a brutal delight, a departure from the past, a nod to a startling present.
1. Saint 2. Destroyer 3. Radical 4. Do It 5. No 6. Sally & Me 7. Harlequin 8. Lost Lunar One 9. Temple of the Mind 10. Magdalene 11. Spoon Jade 12. Jem
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- Format Detail: LP Shrink-wrapped
- Genre: Rock
- Format: Vinyl
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