Album Review: Temples - Volcano

28 February 2017 | 1:21 pm | Guido Farnell

"A lush profusion of psychedelic pop dreaminess."

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After the brilliance of Sun Structures and the Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Sun Restructured remix, Temples have been largely silent.

The outfit have taken their time to follow up but the wait between albums has seen the band grow and mature. Their latest is a blinding epic of cosmic disco and cosmic rock all filtered through the retro, rose-coloured glasses of the '60s and '70s. This Volcano has been lying dormant for a while but now it's certainly ready to blow and spew forth psychedelic nuggets of rock that are heavily invested in delivering charming pop melodies.

With his corkscrew curls James Bagshaw looks a lot like a young Marc Bolan, but the closest he comes to getting on his T-Rex is with the charming Roman Godlike Man, which feels like glam in outer space. For the most part they shrug off those twangy Byrd's hooks and connect the dots between The Pretty Things, The Zombies and The Soft Boys in ways that should put a smile on Alan McGee's face. They are deliciously synth-heavy and right from the album's opener the lads pick up where MGMT left off and shift us through mind-melting psychedelia decked out in Day-Glo colours.

A lush profusion of psychedelic pop dreaminess.

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