Mancunian psychedelics Whyte Horses release second album Empty Words – words Lee Taylor

It’s hard to pin psychedelia down. What makes some artists of the form great whilst others are just lukewarm – mere also-rans? Most post sixties versions just don’t seem the real deal.

Either the psychedelic bands are trying too hard or they are just going for one aspect of the sound or mood and so it comes across as flat and playing by numbers. Okay to shuffle along to in a student disco (only if drunk) but a pale imitation of the original.

 

It can’t just be sweet or swirly or weird just for the sake of it. It has to be disorientating yes but a touch unsettling as well. We live in worrying times. A rabid orange menace lives in the White House and they set the tone for the rest of the world so we are staring over the edge right now.

A perfect time then for Whyte Horses.  I’ve often wondered what Dom Thomas was up to over the last few years and now I know. I’d been listening to his band the Whyte Rabbits on BBC 6 music without realising it was him behind it. Strange small world we live in at times.

Dom isn’t just a fan of psychedelia – he feels it in his gut. The latest single Empty Words is a case in point. It’s catchy and sweet but the lyrics summon up our fears and demons and is anything but cute. The words are sung kind of sweet but kind of pointed. You could mistake this for being mere melodic pop but it’s more than that. You can’t have the sweet without the sour (it cuts both ways) or at least the beauty is in trying to find that tense balance in between the two. It has a soul. This single sets the stage for what should be a big year for Dom and the band.

The Mancunian psychedelic pop group Whyte Horses release their wonderfully eclectic and uplifting 16 track second album (also called Empty Words) on 9 March via CRC Records.  The band play Royal Festival Hall on 13 September.

TRACKLIST:

1. Counting Down The Years * 2. Never Took The Time *** 3. Greatest Love in Town ** 4. This Dream * 5. Empty Words ** 6. Any Day Now ** 7. Prelude 8. Watching TV *** 9. Ecstasy Song  ** 10. The Best of It ****  11. The Return 12. Fake Protest Song ** 13. Dawn Don’t You Cry * 14. Nightmares Aren’t Real * 15. Fear Is Such A… ***** 16. Ride Easy *

*Vocals by Audrey Pic **Vocals by Audrey Pic and Leonore Wheatley  *** Vocals by Mélanie Pain and Leonore Wheatley  ****Vocals by La Roux *****

Mancunian psychedelics Whyte Horses release second album Empty Words – words Lee Taylor