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The 2nd album from Montreal's High Dials takes liberal doses of 60's psychedelic pop and mixes it with the ringing feedback drone-tones of England's shoegazer movement to create a magically fresh and sanguine sound; filled with a warmth and soaring, vibrant earnestness that is all too rare among most bands of our time. "War Of the Wakening Phantoms" is a joyous masterpiece that rolls along on cascading waves of guitar and layers of vocal harmonies in search of a pop psychedelic wonderland. Gorgeous melodies with stick-in-your-head hooks flirt with folk-rock overtones, then dive headlong into jagged, trippy riffs ripped from the marshmallow acid-head House Of Love.
You'll hear elements of shoegazer icons like Ride, Slowdive & Moose; contemporary psych/pop rockers like Brian Jonestown Massacre & Super Furry Animals; and a diverse array of 60's/70's influences from bands such as the Byrds, Kinks, Big Star, Zombies...even a touch of Donovan and Dylan. The album's openers, "The Holy Ground" & "Soul In Lust" are both powerful, rhythmic rock songs, with melodies you won't soon forget. "Our Time Is Coming Soon" melds a magically harmonic chorus line with an insistently pounding verse, augmented by an angelic fly-by with electric sitar. "Strandhill Sands" begins with a wash of wah-wah guitar that rolls easily into the soft underbelly of love, where an irresistibly sad, heavenly voice is oh-so-gently mutilated by rolling knives of gorgeous guitar sounds: A pure example of absolute beauty as disturbed entity. "Sick With the Old Fire", arguably the most memorable song here, radiates with a stunningly beautiful intensity, offering up the verse as sacrificial manna to the devouring Gods of the grinding, repetitive chorus. "The Lost Explorer" is a softly haunting, dreamy ballad that mixes 50's overtones with chiming guitars and poignant emotion. "Higher and Brighter" bounces along with a simplistic authenticity that recalls the more natural side of Blur or the Thrills. "Your Eyes Are A Door" is an 8 ½ minute epic ballad that only exists in the brief, fragile reality of post-orgasmic ecstasy: It's akin to the experience of hearing yourself drift in solitude--not really possible, but embraced in the pure, unconcerned splendor of the moment.
In making "War Of the Wakening Phantoms" the High Dials have created a new space. A space filled with the sparkly magic of gifted songwriting and the genuine joy of psychedelic pop perfection. They may not change the world, but for sixty minutes and forty three seconds, they've definitely made it a better place to be.
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