Submit thyself before the alter of psych!

On the eighth day of the British Invasion, God created the mellotron, and banished the verse-chorus-verse song structure to hell! Since then, tens of thousands of teenagers and twenty-somethings have brushed the strands of hair out of their eyes and put down their bongs long enough to turn on the phaser and attempt to truly transcend the cosmic boundaries of space and time through gnarly pentatonic scale riffs and raga. Since the heydey of the late 60s, many have perished in their quest for musical nirvana and Target t-shirt immortality. Few who‰’ve tried gained the infamy of Brian Jonestown or the soccer jersey-indebted disposable income of The Stone Roses. But yet the destined few from each generation soldier on in the face of this musical desolation.

Temples are the band that took diligent notes at the Tame Impala production and mixing class, and stuck around while Kevin Parker introduced over-achievers to a band called The Byrds. But while Parker is the published professor whose research and analysis allow him to exchange sonic ideas with the psychedelic greats, Temples spend their debut Sun Structures successfully recapping their references without adding to the discussion. The ingredients are all here: reverb-ed guitars, vague lyrics with vaguely “eastern‰” themes, loose snares, faraway nasally vocals. But Temples don‰’t seem motivated or perhaps even capable of taking risks. Songs lean heavily on a few vocal lines, lyrics are uninspired (“Shelter Song‰” cracks the “drunk, one-night-stand in place for loneliness‰” mode wide with innovative “last night….late night…night night‰” rhyme schemes). But if one sets aside context (hard to do in a genre riddled with greats and wanna-bees), the group stands above the majority of their contemporary peers: songs rarely sprawl a la Jagwar Ma or Toy, and their guitar riffs, while often repetitive, are succinct and pop-oriented.

Recommended Tracks: 5, 6, 7
RIYL: Tame Impala, Toy, The Byrds