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The Green Pajamas — Sunlight Might Weigh Even More
(Green Monkey GM1083, 2021, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2021-12-22

Sunlight Might Weigh Even More Cover art

The global pandemic has pushed musicians all over the world in directions they might not have otherwise traveled (mostly involving little physical travel). Jeff Kelly, in addition to recording a solo album (When the World Was Younger), he managed to put together something that can legitimately be called a Green Pajamas album. Sunlight Might Weigh Even More features 17 tracks of psychedelic goodness fully in line with previous Pajamas releases. In recent years, the band has consisted of Jeff Kelly, Eric Lichter, Joe Ross, Laura Weller, and Scott Vanderpool, all of whom (minus Vanderpool) are present here, though not all at the same time. Lichter contributes two songs, Ross one, and Kelly wrote the rest, and Jeff Kelly played most of the instruments, with assistance from the other songwriters on their own songs. Weller is present vocally on one track, and Susanne Kelly also sings on one. Regardless of the piecemeal origins of the music, it sounds very much like a Green Pajamas band effort. Which is to say that it is top-shelf modern psych rock with catchy melodies and imaginative arrangements full of the kinds of things that make the style so appealing. “High Tea with Miss Ava G.” is one of the most memorable songs, one of Kelly’s which clocks in just shy of eight minutes, making it a psychedelic epic. It’s dripping with sitar, tabla, backwards guitar, sinuous Mellotron-like strings, and tells a cryptic story set in London — Pretty Things for a modern era. It transitions seamlessly into Lichter’s “Sunlight,” which has a pulsing synthesizer to bring it out of the 60s, but carries on the tabla and vintage mood. The pacing of the 17 tracks is very effective, with several shorter tunes serving as bridges between the longer, more rock-oriented pieces. “I’d Rather Be in the Sun,” is two minutes of melancholy lamentation about Seattle weather with just piano and sound effects. The song is revisited in the unlisted final track in a full-band version, putting a satisfying coda onto an outstanding album.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): The Green Pajamas, Jeff Kelly, Fur for Fairies (Susanne Kelly)

More info
http://greenmonkeyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sunlight-might-weigh-even-more

 

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