One Track Mind

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On their previous albums, Los Angeles’ Darker My Love has trafficked in darkly droning psychedelia that perched somewhere between The Black Angels and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. However, even though their tone usually lived up to the band name, it never obscured the fact that they built their tunes on solid hooks and melodies. Two-thirds of the band served time in The Fall, and like that band, Darker My Love always understood that there was no reason that noise and chaos couldn’t also be tuneful.

On “Split Minute,” a track from their third album Alive As You Are (which gets its title from the song’s lyrics and was released this past Tuesday by Dangerbird Records), Darker My Love put aside any gloomy tendencies and opt instead for sunshiney pop music, pushing the hooks of their earlier work into the limelight. But just because “Split Minute” isn’t dark doesn’t mean it’s not still psychedelic as all get out.

The unmistakable chime of Rickenbacker guitars swirls around the melody, unavoidably calling to mind The Byrds. One halfway expects the song to be a cover of “The Bells of Rhymney” before the slithery feedback drone at the song’s core commences to undulate. The combination of psychedelic jangle and hummable melody also hearkens back to The Soft Boys’ Underwater Moonlight and R.E.M.’s Chronic Town–not bad company for a band to find itself in.

To be honest, it’s not the most original redirection that Darker My Love could have taken, but it’s not a bad one, either; the Byrds are one of the most influential bands in the history of rock music for good reason. When a band with Darker My Love’s talent combines that trademark McGuinn-inspired jangle with a few twists of their own and delivers a winning tune, it’s hard to think of much to complain about.