Winds - Look at the Sky (2021)

Winds' debut album Look at the Sky is a perfect combination of psychedelic textures, pop hooks, Baroque arrangements, and memorable songs. Not a huge shock considering the other bands their members play with. Vocalist Trevor Pritchett is in Lucille Furs, whose 2019 album Another Land is a neo-psych gem, Glenn Brigman and Brendan Peleo-Lazar (who was also with the Furs) both make great music with Triptides. Add in well-known visual artist John Zabawa, who sometimes collaborates with Pritchett on songs, and the result is a group with the experience and vision to craft an album that stands out from the psychedelic hordes crowding the airwaves in the early 2020s. The record has a tight, live feel, and the bass and drums snap with understated power while a cavalcade of reverb-heavy guitars of both the six- and 12-string varieties strum and slash. Over the top, the group layer in period-appropriate keyboards and the occasional vocal harmony as they conquer many forms of '60s-based sounds. They come across just as nicely tripping through hazy fields of grass on rambling psych pop tunes like "King of Dreams" as they do on the classically structured, Zombies-like tunes such as "Don't Fall Apart," or tough rockers ("Time We Take") that wouldn't sound out of place on an early Strokes album if they took different drugs. No matter the style, Pritchett delivers constantly surprising vocals, sometimes tossing off the lyrics casually as if he were making them up on the spot ("The Way You Feel"), other times swaggering like the 12th coming of Mick Jagger ("Return of the Jive"). He always sounds just right, and the rest of the band make no mistakes, surrounding him with exactly the right instrumental flourish or rock-solid backing to really make the songs resonate. As the record starts, you might get the sinking feeling that maybe the sound on Look at the Sky has been overdone, maybe too many bands are trying on these old clothes for there to be anything new or exciting here, but it doesn't take long for that feeling to dissipate like smoke on a breezy day. What's left behind is the realization that Winds do this kind of thing better than almost anyone around, and even give their parent bands a run for their psychedelic money.