Evangelicals reviewed
Norman, Oklahoma’s Evangelicals have little in common with the college football powerhouse in their hometown and, culturally for the villa, couldn’t have come any soooner.
So Gone is as free-sounding a record as you’ll find. Each track opens with a graceful run before soaring through the clouds in a prismatic, sun-drenched blast of light, equal parts My Morning Jacket, Stone Roses, Belle & Sebastian, Beachwood Sparks, and mid-’90s Flaming Lips. “Hello Jenn, I’m A Mess” could be the ultimate crystallization of what Joan Of Arc haven’t been able to muster the past three years, a hand-clappy fete dipping at the whim of a sloppy slide guitar and Josh Jones’ even more slippery voice. At home with the late-’80s, jangly college rock radio set, Evangelicals sound fresh not in the breaking barriers sense, but as if they’re the morning people to end all morning people. For the skeptical rockists, a bass-heavy organ and squealing Les Paul power “What An Actress Does Best” in a Montery Pop orgasm of color, leaving the synthtro’d “Goin Down” and spiralling lullabye “The Water Is Warm” to pick Norman up before putting it down to rest.
— Kevin Keegan
Category: Spins
