The Morning After Girls

The Morning After Girls are a band from New York by way of Melbourne. I have to assume their name is more a reference to the haziness that follows a night out, as opposed to the pill bearing a similar name. Musically, they are descendants of the fuzzy psych-rock of bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, focusing on well placed feedback, explorative but tempered jams, and a sense of aloof disconnect. However, they don’t simply mimic their predecessors.

On "Alone," they nicely layer extra percussion and keyboards while 60's harmonies and psychedelic guitars replace the shoegazer fuzz. The complexity works well, and Sasha Lucashenko’s calming voice is suited to the style. “Alone” segues into “Death Processions,” which is perhaps the most Jesus & Mary Chain derivative song, with a clear influence showing through the guitars and Lucashenko’s blend of coarse, yet diffused vocals. Generally speaking, The Morning After Girls play less abrasive rock than JAMC, perhaps more comparable to said band’s latter years. At times this atmospheric, disconnected feel goes so far as to remind me of Pink Floyd, as on the melodramatic “You Need to Die,” where Lucashenko lushly sings, “You need to die/ for the rest of us/ will now be justified” and eventually ends on the stoned revelation that, dude, “life is just a feeling.” The harmonies in “Still Falling,” reinforce the Pink Floyd association.

The album loses itself in terms of organization. The middle is well structured, with the layered sounds of “The General Public” through “You Need to Die” playing well off each other and crafting a signature sound of layered psych-rock with 60's and 70's undertones. However, the beginning and end struggle to find a defining tone, and the closing song, “Tomorrow’s Time,” lasts seven dreary minutes and is followed by another eight minutes of silence that, instead of building to a bonus track, only earns you five seconds of clashy guitars. It ends on disappointment, and that leaves a bad taste. “Who Is They” feels much more like an album closer.

6.7 / 10 — Loren