Outrageous Cherry - Out There In The Dark LP

Outrageous Cherry - Out There In The Dark LP (Feeding Tube (US)/Cardinal Fuzz(UK)

Do you get weak kneed for melodies of The Zombies, the powerful garage hooks of The Troggs, and wondered how the Beach Boys would have sounded like had they gone the biker jacket route? There are a handful of American masterclass '60s inspired pop song writers out there and Matthew Smith of Outrageous Cherry is the name everyone should know. And I am not just typing that because there is a song on this LP called Tracy either.

This isn't streaming on places like Spotify, so if you needed extra inspiration to pick this underground classic, you have a lovely vinyl repress waiting to join your collection.

They Say

To Celebrate its 25th anniversary, Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records present the lost classic that is Outrageous Cherry's Out There In The Dark, presented for the very first time on vinyl. Originally released via the DF2K (the contemporary sister label of Del-Fi), one of the classic labels of the '50s and '60s (Richie Valens/Bobby Fuller) and in Europe via Poptones. While earlier records shared a love of The Turtles, The Troggs, and Television Personalities (among a host of other stuff), Out There In The Dark feels like Eno and Hawkwind filtered through Petula Clark's hit singles and Spectorized via Matthew Smiths' wonderful analog production. Recorded at Jim Diamond's Ghetto Recorders Studio, this release makes use of a huge ancient reel to reel machine that provides that superb tape echo effect employed across this LP. Like Guided By Voices, Outrageous Cherry's affection for this kind of music never sounds retro, and their experimental touches make Out There In The Dark plays like a jukebox full of forgotten hits, a time machine with its controls set for the past and the future. Across 13 tracks, sweet melodies and harmonies soar over vicious urban Motor City guitar workouts. Motown-fueled bass and drums throb hypnotically as Matthew Smith sings as though Brian Wilson had been an honorary Ramone. Beatle-esque pop numbers like "Tracy", "Corruptable," and the made-for-AM radio "Where Do I Go When You Dream?" balance moodier songs like the album's narcotic centerpiece, "Easy Come, Uneasy Glow." Their trippy side comes to the forefront on the excellent, backwards guitar-driven "Only the Easy Way Down," as Larry Rays solos cut like a jagged knife, and in the title track's drifting guitars and shifting tempos. Smith's ultra-faithful, vintage production style sparkles on "A Bad Movie." The album closer "There's No Escape From the Infinite" ends in a trance-inducing guitar apocalypse that would make Spacemen 3 and The Jesus And Mary Chain proud. Presented in a gloss laminated outer sleeve and with a four-page folded A4 insert and download code.