Ulysses - On Safari

  by Kimberly Bright

published: 4 / 7 / 2019

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Trying to delve into Ulysses’ background a bit more deeply than a press release proves harder than I originally imagined. One would think that a band this good, with a “rock stars recovering from a vision quest at Joshua Tree” visual aesthetic and an odd, brilliant, probably mad songwriter like Luke Smyth would have loads of blog posts and articles about them. Alas, no. At least our friends over at 'Classic Rock' have done right by them in recent years. Ulysses's music has been compared to, among others, early KISS and Franz Ferdinand, which is, in all honesty, damning with faint praise. They describe their own sound as “a nether land between psych, glam and rock, guitar stroking and pop sheen.” There is a bright power pop sun shining on that psychedelic nether land. Their fourth and latest album, On Safari, somehow improves on their incredible 2016 release ‘Law and Order.' It doesn't slow down a bit from the Hare Krishna mantra opening of 'Looking for a Guru"' to the last note of 'Calendar Street': riff-heavy Thin Lizzy guitar, ELO-grade backing vocals, and amusingly raunchy lyrics (the Kasabian-ish 'Doctor's & Nurses'). The must-see video for 'Dragons' is part-Monkees, part-Monty Python, while the song itself embodies the very best of mid-’70s RAK Records singles. Even the album cover art looks like a high school semester’s worth of pen-and-ink drawing in study hall on a tattered notebook cover in 1974, counting down the days to summer break. Many thanks to Luke Smyth (vocals, guitar), Jimmy Peppers (bass, backing vocals), Denny Peppers (guitar, backing vocals), and Shane Maxymus (drums, backing vocals) for officially making this summer better with 'On Safari'.

Track Listing:-

1 Looking for a Guru
2 Doctors and Nurses
3 Bad Tattoo
4 Dragons
5 This Useless Love
6 She
7 Situation Man
8 Interlude
9 Let's Move
10 Married Woman
11 Why Aren't These People My Friends?
12 Piper's Chest
13 Fuzzy Lion
14 Outro
15 Calendar Street

Band Links:-

http://ulyssestheband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ulyssesgb
https://twitter.com/ulyssesgb

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