Secret Colours - Positive Distractions FLAC

If I could say just one thing about the Positive Distractions, the new release from the Chicago based neo-psych band, it’s that here, they manage to “bounce” ... harking back warm bygone days, days when “In The Summertime” by The Kinks dominated the AM airways, when there was both a hazy magic and a crispness to the songs.

Secret Colours have capture all that and more, conjuring strolling melodies that sit brightly, rather than tucked away in the corner, and certainly different than one would expect after hearing their previous melodies, which were much more suited for the layered atmospheric effects of lingering late into the night. I suppose I’m both surprised and a bit taken back at the same time, as I was dearly hoping for more of the smoke laden reverb and dysphoric adventures ... however, Positive Distractions is just what it says it is, a positive distraction, positive pop, filled with more than competent original garage psych rock. And while it may not have been the step I was expecting, it’s certainly vibrant.

It’s one thing to be influenced by nostalgic classics, it’s quite another to be defined by them ... Positive Distractions proves that a band can seamlessly weave what once was, with what now is, and come off sounding like they own what they do.

Review by Jenell Kesler