A Dreamy, Happy, Mystical World
The first thing that you hear on Connan Mockasin’s (real name Connan Tant Hosford) reissue of his 2011 album, Forever Dolphin Love, are children saying “hello” to the psychedelic singer. This salutation signals your entrance into a world that seems to move like it’s underwater, mystical, and inhuman.
This atmosphere is bolstered by delayed guitars with heavy reverb, as in the second track, “It’s Choade My Dear.” The guitars are similarly dreamy on “Faking Jazz Together.” This song creates a more complete mood with its delicate percussion through the use African drums and heavily compressed vocals that are reminiscent of the early days of Pink Floyd and Brian Eno.
A similarly dream-like song is “Egon Hasford,” which uses the same vocal effect, but uses it in a song with a guitar part that makes you feel like you are charging through the desert in the Wild West. This ability to use the same effect and make it feel completely different shows great—and ultimately subtle—versatility.
While his vocals often add a dreamy effect, many of the best mood pieces on the album are all instrumental. “Love Muss” is a melancholy piano ballad with sparse strings in the background. While “Granpa Moff” is a bouncing acoustic guitar waltz track that seems like it would be at home in Mario Kart. The album bounces through moods seamlessly and to great effect, makes it cohesive. All the moods are culminated in the ten-minute long title track that is both electronic and acoustic: a very cool achievement.
While the album successfully swims through different moods, it doesn’t contain much substance in the lyrics department. The vocal effects that Mockasin uses often detracts from what he is saying. But that seems to be part of the point, as shown on “Unicorn in a Uniform.” On the catchiest song on the album, he sings, “I wanted to ride your unicorn / But he was in my uniform.” He makes fun of the emotionally heavy lyrics that are prevalent in rock.
It is because of this that he makes a dreamy, happy, and mystical world for the listener to live in.
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