By Jonny Bakes
Do you ever have the urge to just whisk yourself off to the ‘60s/’70s and experience all of those psychedelic vibes first-hand? I know I certainly do. Unfortunately, no one has succeeded in inventing time travel yet (as far as we know) but have no fear as there are plenty of bands who do a great job of capturing those vibes to give a real flavour of the psych. One of those bands who do this particularly well are Swedish rockers Lykantropi who started making waves with their 2017 self-titled debut album.
And that album is exactly what we have to listen to today in mark of its special edition re-release on the 31st January in multiple formats including a nice shiny 180gm black vinyl and a deluxe CD. To sweeten the deal even more, this re-release of ‘Lykantropi’ also includes a new, never-before released (outside of Sweden) track called ‘Summernights’. I don’t know about you, but this is certainly an album that passed me by on its initial release and after the first track I’m almost disappointed that I hadn’t picked this up sooner!
It’s got delightfully summery vibes with its blend of early ’70s psych rock and folk elements. If you were to get Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull to join Mamas and Papas on stage to accompany a cover of ‘California Dreaming’ with his flute, then you’d have a pretty good picture of just the vibe I’m getting off this album. The vocal harmonies are as rich as Scrooge McDuck and the riffs pack serious levels of groove, which has already earned a place in my 2020 Summer Road Trip playlist. I will definitely be blasting this album out in those warm summer evenings when I’m travelling around living out of the back of my van, that’s for sure!
As this is a re-release there’s bound to be many of you who, unlike me, are already familiar with this album so I won’t focus too heavily on those tracks that formed part of the original release. Instead I’m just going to try and pick out a favourite song, which is no easy feat at all, and then we’ll take a look at that exclusive new track. So, starting with my favourite track, after much deliberation I think I’ll have to go with ‘Mary Jane’ which has an incredibly catchy riff that sucks you in from the very start. Like all of the other songs, the vocal harmonies between the vocalists add a huge amount of depth that just strikes a chord with me. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you what the song is about, mind, but I can tell you that the mood is sufficiently chilled to do it justice.
Now we have the new and exclusive track, ‘Summernights’ which, like the rest of this album, is perfect for just that occasion. It really does invoke images of sitting around a fire on a warm night, just having a good chill with good company. The flute makes a real impact on this track and works perfectly with in partnership with the guitars to pull of some unexpected harmonising to just add that little bit extra to really keep you in the mood.
So, all in all, if you love your rock laced with ’70s pyschedelia then this is an album that needs to work its way into your rotation. It certainly made me feel summery on a grim and frostbitten night, so imagine what it can do in the height of the two days of summer we get a year! This will definitely appeal to fans of the likes of Blues Pills, Blue Oyster Cult, Fleetwood Mac among many others.
- ‘Lykantropi’ is re-released on Friday (31 January). You can get your copy HERE.
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