EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG

If I was going to have only one Architectural Metaphor CD, this would be it. All of their different sides are represented here sonically, from the nods to the chaotic instrumental jams of the early cassette years to some reworked material from when Deb Young was still singer and drummer to the current lineup with Murph from Dinosaur Jr on drums, and the fantastically talented Andrea Aguayo on vocals. Paul Eggleston on keyboards and Greg Kozlowski on guitar and effects are the mainstays. Murph joined in 2001 for Other Music, a live album. This 2013 release is Murph's second album with the band, and this thing is a journey in the spirit of old school albums-you feel like the whole thing took you on a ride. The opener, an 8 minute song called Apocalypse is the closest they have come to a real rock song, and a pretty definitively great one it is too. It chugs along Amon Duul style with Andrea wailing chilling warnings about the earth's imminent demise. Great guitar from Greg swirls throughout this, probably my favorite Architectural Metaphor song. Everything You Know is Wrong is an extremely out of character three minute pop tune that wouldn't be out of place on late night radio. An odd choice, but the band shows some strong pop sensibilities if they choose. For prog and krautrock fans though, this is only a short aberration. The Temple Song is also short-just over two minutes-but is a redone version of a song from the late 90's Paul-Deb-Greg trio. Quirky and lurching and pagan. Some longer instrumentals vary between heavy thumping drum driven prog to more delicate sequencer and vocal jams that stray to the ethereal edges of Ash Ra Tempel or later Gong. The album closer is the highlight though. A cover of Roxy Music's In Every Dreamhome a Heartache-a love song to an inflatable doll originally sung by Bryan Ferry is now slightly more sinister with the gender reversal as Andrea whispers her entreaties to her (vinyl) friend until the reveal-and the band explodes from silence into one of their most furious blasts of pure rock and roll. Andrea wails 'oh oh heartache' over Greg Kozlowski's phased, flanged and fricasseed guitar leads that are trying to rip the song and the universe literally apart. Murph throws down some of his best Zappa influenced drum rolls I'd ever heard from him. Eggleston provides the sonic glue with a hard charging Hammond clattering in and out of the madness. When this song rolls to a halt, you really feel like you've been on a carnival ride from the album's beginning to end. This band was in the Space Rock Bible that Shindig put out a few years ago called Interstellar Overdrive: The Shindig! Guide to Space Rock, highly recommended reading for fans of bands like this. Great stuff. Highly recommended for fans of Amon Duul 2, Ash Ra Tempel, Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles. Nearly perfect- 4.5 stars