Song of the Week – Shelter Song, Temples

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I’m long overdue for a SotW featuring new music, so I’ll fix that today with a song by the band Temples.

Temples is a new psychedelic 4 piece band from the UK that treads much of the same territory as Tame Impala. But where TI takes 60s psych influences and gives them a very modern face lift, Temples seems happy just to inhabit the sounds of the past. They even record with analog equipment, including reel-to-reel tape deck and effects pedals, and classic Rickenbacker 12 string guitars.

Their first single, “Shelter Song”, was released in 2013 but their debut album, Sun Structures, was just released in February.

You can hear the territory that “Shelter Song” stakes out from its first psilocybin chords. The music draws comparisons to so many icons of Nuggets era 60s psych – 13th Floor Elevators, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Byrds, Donovan, Love, Syd period Pink Floyd – that it’s senseless to try to name them all. I even hear a little Marc Bolan/T Rex glam influence too. (But I may be influenced by lead sing/guitarist James Bagshaw’s curly head of hair with that assessment.)

When Bagshaw sings the hippy dippy lyrics, his vocals are somewhat reminiscent of Robert Plant.

One night
You came on over to me
Late night
We shared a drink or three
Night night
I read a proverb to you
That night
She left a room with a view

Take all the time
Time that you want to
Make up your mind
Mind how you go
Take me in time
Time to the music
Take me away to the twilight zone

That the band has an ear for a decent pop melody is what makes their album so pleasurable. If you’re up for a paisley filled, musical nostalgia trip, Temples’ Sun Structures will take you there.

Enjoy… until next week.

One thought on “Song of the Week – Shelter Song, Temples

  1. I’m finding that new music is hard. The basic sound of this is pretty good, but the shimmer of psychedelia is a distraction. And having watched the video it’s hard to separate song from visual.

    But maybe, faced with this music, I’d wonder why it was enrobed in such a distinctive genre sound. Why would some young people choose to make these sounds unless they were committed to living the hard core psychedelic life?

    Maybe they are, but I wish they were living the Steppenwolf life.

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