Music, particularly rock music, used to be awash with fantasy and sci-fi metaphors and stories. There seemed to be times when you couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a band waxing lyrical about epic quests to Mordor or time-dilating voyages to distant galaxies. Today, with the exception of perhaps of those cheeky, Dungeons and Dragons playing metallers, things are a bit more thoughtful. And even when we do come across bands who want to take us to other worlds and distant fantastical realms, there seems to be something more poised and purposeful about their work.
This is certainly true about “Children in the Trees,” the new single from Pretend Collective. It feels more like a gentle dream or a half-remembered fairy tale rather than the usual macho and mindless narrative that feels as if it has been garnered from the plot line of a role-playing or video game.
And musically, it also flits delicately and spaciously along. A gentle beat lies at the hear of the song, onto which Pretend Collective hang swathes of shimmering guitar and the most gorgeous neo-psychedelic vocal harmonies heard this side of a Redd Kross record.
Some bands try too hard to recreate the sound of the ’60s. They plagiarize and plunder yet end up with something that sounds forced and fabricated. “Children in the Trees” doesn’t sound as if Pretend Collective is trying to recall or replicate the music of that decade; it sounds more like no one has told them that the ’60s has even ended. It’s like Altamont never happened, man!
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