[rating=7.00]
After five years as Mr. Elevator & The Brain Hotel, the Psych-Pop trio from Los Angeles has decided to shorten their moniker to just Mr. Elevator in conjunction with their sophomore release When the Morning Greets You. While there is no shortage of bands in the modern psych-pop scene, Mr. Elevator differentiates themselves by abjuring the electric guitar, instead creating their soundscapes with organs, synthesizers, electric pianos and bass guitar. The way that co-founders Thomas Dolas and Justin Martinez use effects on their keys and vocals create a sound that harkens back to the golden age of psychedelia with a heavy dose of The Doors. Though When the Morning Greets You does not stray very far from their debut album, Nico & Her Psychedelic Subconscious, it feels like a continuation of the musical journey that that first album started the listener out on.
When the Morning Greets You plays out like a journey through someone’s day-in-the-life. The album opens with “When the Morning Greets You With A Smile,” an upbeat track where the listener can’t help but feel that someone has just woken up in a great mood. The subsequent tracks “Madeline” and “Sunshine Daydream” continue in the vein of up-tempo and optimism. It’s on “Dreamer” and “Are You Hypnotized” that one feels like the reality of the day starts to set in. The waltzing polka tempos of the tracks bring to mind mad carnivals and haunted houses. After the instrumental interludes of “A Lullaby” and “Intro” the rest of the album feels like a descent into madness. The tempo and key effects remain largely the same and tend to meander quite a bit through much of the second half of the album creating a common thread to follow to the last song. The album ends with the appropriately named “Ending”, which puts the listener in mind that the end of the journey has come upon us. The organ drones along in the background as the singer laments how “Everyday you’re getting old/There’s nothing you can do/ It all comes down to you”.
All in all, Mr. Elevator’s sophomore album doesn’t bring much new to the table in regards to innovation within psych-pop, but it still remains a solid album. Feeling like you are being taken on a journey or living out someone else’s day is not something that can be done easily, and When the Morning Greets You manages to not only pull it off but make it sound easy. Like most groups under the umbrella of psychedelia, it is also probable that ingesting or inhaling certain things might even increase the experience.
[youtube id=”nBTy7Izkkv0″ width=”630″ height=”350″]
