Outrageous Cherry - Seemingly Solid Reality

  by Carl Bookstein

published: 5 / 7 / 2010

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Review

On their new album 'Seemingly Solid Reality', Outrageous Cherry creates a sound that is at once reminiscent of the 1960s as well as innovative and new. Outrageous Cherry’s guitars both jangle and reverberate. 'Seemingly Solid Reality' mixes psychedelic rock with current indie pop for a result that is truly substantial. Named after a bright red hair dye, Detroit’s Outrageous Cherry began recording in 1992 and then started playing live in 1993. The current band is Matthew Smith on vocals, guitar, organ and synthesizer, Larry Ray on lead guitar, Sean Ellwood on bass and Samantha Linn on drums. The opening number, 'Seemingly Solid Reality' starts ominously with swirling synthesizer that comes on like an airplane from overhead. The effect of this purely instrumental opener is both psychedelic and beautiful, as the album gets off to a great start. On 'Unbalanced in the City' which includes appealing reverberating guitars, Outrageous Cherry seems to be speaking to the troubled dilapidated city of Detroit: “The truth of it ain’t pretty.” Smith's vocal on 'Fell' brings to mind the Beach Boys, yet it has a grittier instrumental. As the album progresses, 'Odyssey and Oracle', the 1960's masterpiece by the Zombies also comes to mind. On 'The Happy Hologram' the lyrics are evocative: “Gargoyles of madness await/Perched to swoop down and get straight.” 'Forces of Evil' starts with killer guitar that repeats, laced between the lines of lyrical imagery about evil, including “psychic slaughterhouses” and “patriotic appeal.”. 'Seemingly Solid Reality' is sonically gratifying throughout. 'Unamerican Girls' with its mesmerizing drum beat showcases a band that is clearly in synch. The album ends strongly with 'The Unimportant Things', a somewhat mournful ballad of regret that hits an emotional note: “The unimportant things stretch from nowhere to never/Designed by chance perhaps to trouble you forever.” This universal song is put forth with a compelling vocal that speaks to “The sun, the moon, the stars.” In the end Outrageous Cherry with 'Seemingly Solid Reality' have created a great indie psych rock album. This is a band truly worth discovering.

Track Listing:-

1 Seemingly Solid Reality
2 Unbalanced In The City
3 Fell
4 My Ghetto
5 Self-Made Monster
6 The Happy Hologram
7 Nothing's Changed
8 Forces Of Evil
9 I Like It
10 Unamerican Girls
11 The Unimportant Things

Label Links:-

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http://www.alive-records.com/
https://twitter.com/AliveRecords
https://instagram.com/alivenaturalsoun
https://www.youtube.com/user/JIMalive1