Allah-Las bring a refined sense of hazy nostalgia with Calico Review

In a recent interview with The Guardian however, the band expressed frustration, or rather a now tired indifference, with the habitual defining of the band by their so-called 60s revivalist tendencies. While their frustration is understandable, so is their tendency to be pigeonholed; the band create garage rock in which sounds from specific cities and eras float to the surface like answers in an 8-Ball.

But whilst their form of nostalgia borders at times on pastiche, their songwriting has always been strong, and that accounts for this permeating sense of nostalgic familiarity that comes with their releases. Their third full-length Calico Review, their first on NYC label Mexican Summer, follows 2014’s Worship The Sun and builds on their established sound.

More than having just a clear sense of influences to build on, Allah-Las have always shunned cheap plug-ins and sought genuine analogue recording equipment to add a sense of history to their songs. Recording in the historic Valentine Recording Studios in Los Angeles, which reopened last year, proved a perfect playground for their West Coast rock; Calico Review was recorded using the 1964 Universal Audio 610 soundboard used on the seminal Pet Sounds. The resulting sound is a warmer texture, less cutting on the guitars and more welcoming to the in-depth orchestration that they have gone for here. Its lead single “Famous Phone Figures”, initially underwhelming but beautifully composed nonetheless is gentle and understated, allowing the strings and subtle Mellotron to complement the song’s narrative which vignettes the gaze of an unknown figure.

It’s not a grand addition; fear not, the band have kept the sonic honesty that comes with this kind of clean garage rock. This is perhaps best exemplified by “Could Be You”, a care free ode to change, whose video directed by Laura Lynn-Petrick blends movement with vistas of LA to portray the cities own adeptness for change.

In fact, there’s less of the spaghetti western style strumming in place here too. Indeed, the record has a gentle and stoned laziness to it, as with its sleepy opener “Strange Heat”.

Calico Review refers to a type of pattern in which a range of colours merge into one; as much as it may frustrate Allah-Las, the palette of their Calico Review remains a similar hue, but their ability to paint brilliant art with it remains intact.