Engaging But Not Perfect

There’s a strange allure to psychedelic music. It drags you in like a hypnosis, beckoning you to delve further into its repetitive layers. These are the hallmarks of any psych rock album — a unique atmosphere and an unshakable desire to get closer to it all. On The Subversive Nature of Kindness, Thor and Friends attempt to capitalize on this ideal through the use of unique instruments and layered repetition. The results are often times mixed but when they hit, the world seems to melt away, leaving only the music.

The album begins with a light marimba melody on “90 Meteres” that builds and expands into rattlers and guitar. The sound is entrancing to say the least, and despite its hurried pace it is never frantic enough to detach itself from its relaxing nature. Marimba and other mallet instruments are a staple of the album, and continue into “Carpet Creeps” which also features a swelling string section. Right off the bat this song is arresting, the marimba section is quicker and more grabbing then that of “90 Meteres” quite similar to something from the mind of the great Masayoshi Fujita. The strings also help to elevate the song beyond its predecessor. They hum and vibrate over the top end of the track, creating a floating atmosphere that is easy for any listener to get lost in. The song is a little on the short side, which is unfortunate, as this could have been one of the longer cuts on the record and it would still have fit fantastically alongside the rest of the tracks.

Towards the middle of the album, the songs begin to lose some of their previous allure. Tracks like “Swimming With Stina” have some captivating instrumentation but begin to wear on the listener after too long. The strange gurgling or clicking noise that accompanies the marimba makes the track feel slightly unsettling — something the album has thus far not ventured to do, making it seem a tad out of place. The final track “Resist” does make some efforts to save the album, however. “Resist” heavily features horns played in a lazy jazz manner and does not rely on the marimba quite as much as previous tracks, allowing a reprieve at the end of the record. It would go a long way towards correcting the latter half of the albums issues, however it falls somewhat flat. The horns, while played well, comprise the entirety of the track, making for a dull listen if one was hoping to find something that matched the complexity of the early album.

Making a great psychedelic album is not easy, and anyone who says it is clearly hasn’t inundated themselves with the dearth of music that is out there. The Subversive Nature of Kindness probably isn’t going to change the life of whoever listens to it, but the early songs on the album could serve as a wonderful introduction to a new genre of music. It’s so close to being a solid album, and the end of the album mucking it up just a tiny bit can come across as a real letdown. At the end of the day though, it is a solid album worth a few listens, and some of the early tracks are more than capable of staying in a weekly rotation.