Psychic Ills – Inner Journey Out

For all that somebody has forgotten to affix the warning 'This is NOT a Spiritualized record' to the album’s artwork – the Farfissa organ, the gospel flourishes, the languid, almost horizontal vocals straight out of the Jason Pierce guide to stagecraft – Inner Journey Out is not pastiche.

It’s not even homage, once you look beyond the obvious, and while the New York duo have always sounded somewhat self-medicated, their songcraft travels far beyond druggy introspection – never more so on I Don’t Mind, its hazy undercurrents swirling, Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval providing vocal uplift alongside the pedal steel guitar.

Elsewhere there’s a discernible country influence, Coca-Cola Blues road-weary, opener Back to You floating amidst Mojave textures. Jazz cadences pop up too in the psychedelic cloak of Ra Wah Wah; in other words, perhaps a wee bit too derivative for some – Tres Warren’s scuzzy washed-up vocals evoke Anton Newcombe. Still, there’s enough here to trigger intrigue should you make the effort.