The Thousands

‘Side projects’ get a bad rap; either as material not strong enough for the ‘real’ band, or aesthetic oddities only appreciated as a side-dish to the main course.

Pfft. Anyone who’s heard the achingly lovelorn, fuzzed-out dirge-pop of Stephen McBean’s Pink Mountaintops knows – this is music that’s at least on par with his other (equally awesome) band, Black Mountain.

Where BM are heavy Sabbath riffs and hard rock, PM are all about the hooks and lalas of pop. And by ‘pop’, I’m talking about how The Velvet Underground highlighted the seedy side of 50s radio hits: eerie, fuzz-loving, and jittery-strumming.**Outside Love expands on the intimacy of earlier PM releases with big walls-of-sound (that beg to be played LOUD). Highlights include the Phil Spector-esque orchestration of opener, ‘Axis:Thrones of Love’, and the melancholic, shambling classic rock of, ‘And I Thank You’.

Far from a side dish, Outside Love is a slab of rich rock mystique – one of this year’s best – that’s well worth sinking both teeth into.