Search - Lilys :: Everything Wrong Is Imaginary

Marries experimentalism, indie pop, gentle psychedelia

John L Murphy | Los Angeles | 04/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Certainly representative of the whole past decade-plus that has seen Kurt Heasley and whoever else he corrals into his pen to take hold of a bucking bronco of uneasy psych-pop, electronic rumblings, and willful indie obscurity--in lyrics, titles of albums, and concert appearances or their lack. Heasley's one of those overlooked prodigies who every few years puts out another one-man generated and then band-processed complex album that nobody seems to hear beyond a very few. It'd be nice if that neglect changed with this one.



It's conventionally song-oriented unlike his more repetitive ep's and side projects released under the Lilys name around 2001. This recalls the early wanderings of the second 90s' album "Eccsame" more than their chipper "Better Can't Make You Better" Kinks-inspired phase. It also, in its balance between studio processing of sounds and more straightforward tunes, progresses slightly from "The 3-Way," one of the strangest albums I have heard under the guise of rock, and is closer to "Precollection," its predecessor, again marked with Michael Musanno's densely layered production. You can tell he's a bass player, for that instrument takes a prominent place in the mix, and attention to the depth it creates makes this CD nearly tangible as well as finely prepared as an audio artwork. It needs to be turned up to appreciate the moods--while not "loud" music, it deserves attention and rewards immersion.



The best song, in that it has by far the (only?) catchy riff, is the Pixies-like track 6. This stands out from the rest of the songs, which reminded me of post-2000 albums by similarly restless musicians: track 3 is like Beck's disco homage (I did not like this song, however--it really brings down the rating I gave EWII) and others conjure up Steven Malkmus' more meandering solo work, as well as sparkling hints of such unjustly forgotten mid-90s studio-crafted obsessive peers to Heasley and crew such as Rollerskate Skinny or Comet or Sixteen Deluxe or Lotus Crown in the Lilys' determination not to be too accessible, but also not too far out in left field beyond the pop orbit. In 20 years I bet the Lilys will be name-checked by whoever's at the cutting edge of whatever will pass as intelligent rock music.



This is a solid album to get a sense of the more difficult periods of the Lilys' past work, but it is not so removed from the pop side as some of their other albums mentioned above. My 13-year-old son liked it a lot, too, which says something for its appeal! "It's like the Flaming Lips, but better," he concurred (speaking of their albums starting with "Soft Bulletin"--which he likes far more than me, for what it's worth as a comparison for you who are considering a Lilys purchase)."

Return to fuzzy form

hillary | oxford | 03/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"the new lilys harks back to their early records like "eccsame the photon band" and "in the presence of nothing" in that distorted guitar takes precedence over herky-jerky jingle-jangles when, in the middle period of the lilys' output, Heasley discovered the KINKS. the watery bursts of guitar-leads here, in the first two tracks--"black magic..." and "candy"--echo echo & the bunnymen (in the best way). the melodies are not overly complex, not quite simple--and thus this record, i can tell, is going to be around for a while: one won't get burnt on it too quickly. strong songs all the way through put lilys in the same category of two bands i just got turned on to: CALLA and THE BLACK WATCH.

like the lils, the aforementioned don't have a single clunker in their new collections. "everything" has, in a word, everything for those of us who still love that My bloody valentine kind of feeling!"