Yes folks, Pete Bradley, the man who goes under the name of SUPER DISTORTION is back, and back in a big way! Last year I reviewed ‘Autocue/Super Bug’ and then I stated “if Pete Bradley continues to turn out songs as clever and tuneful as this, then I think he will become very well known”. Well, he has certainly developed beyond that single with this album. Using his own studio and playing all his own instruments, this long player is a testament to Pete’s inventiveness and innovation.
There are ten tracks on the album, which opens with the superheavy fuzz of ‘Beautiful Life’: a track that the publicity blurb states was ‘inspired by the tracks Down by the River and Cowgirl in the sand by Neil Young’. To my ears, it seems a bit more akin to Young’s ‘Like a Hurricane’ in the way the guitar line circles and builds. The lyrics are concerned with displacement, both of people and of art itself, and with the chorus of: - “We led a beautiful life.” This is a track which at over seven minutes long, you can immerse and lose yourself in.
‘Think Only Good Things’ which follows takes a different slant, folky, whimsical and uniquely English it has a real 1960s feel to it: - “Think only good things, of chocolate éclair things, no not sad things, or bad things/ Only good things and maybe it could bring good things to you.” I liked the way the lyrics flowed on this one and the clever rhymes – “Think only young things, of curranty bun things”, which brought a smile to my lips. This was reminiscent of The Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society, and showed a different side to Pete’s work.
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‘Mr Spock’ is a sort of fuzz classic, sounding very early 1970s prog psyche, and with some brilliant rhymes on TV and cartoon characters: “Do you know Mr. Spock? If you do Join the flock” and
“Do you know Elmer Fudd? If you do, join the club/ Shooting at anything that moves, blowing a hole in his shoes.” However, the one that most tickled me was: - “Do you know Dick Dastardly? He’s setting traps for you and me.”
Other tracks that really shook me were ‘Can You See The Patterns?’ with its disturbing, distorted intro before crashing into something that isn’t a million miles away from The Move, when they were at their best: - “Maybe we’re just cogs in a green machine/ We think we’re clever cogs, but beneath the sheen,
We’re running round and round with no plan to be seen.”
Highlight of the album is ‘Living Thing’ which is a perfect example of garage rock, featuring organ, fuzz guitar and drums, this track is just perfect and so fits the garage genre, that were it to be added into either one of the Nuggets or pebbles compilations without anyone’s knowledge, then I’d challenge anyone to spot the difference. It is that good.
In short this is a must have album. Whilst we are only just into March, this for me is without doubt album of the year so far.
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