Being a psychedelic rock band in 2014 is far from novel. Then again, neither is being Majestico. From solo outings to impromptu ensembles, singer/songwriter/guitarist Graham Fitzpenn has been pushing his revisionist psychedelia around Nashville in innumerable incarnations — all under the Majestico moniker, with Fitzpenn the only constant. Though gigging has been relentless, Majestico's recorded output has been sparse — his attempts purportedly plagued by difficulties technical, personal and financial — making the brand-new When Kingdom Come seem every bit the band's proper debut. That said, how does it fare against the onslaught of lysergic bliss that's overtaken indie rock as we know it?
Since the turn of the 21st century, there's been an increasingly relentless wave of Nuggets-nodding acid-rock revivalists, flooding the suburbs and trickling out through the Internet to saturate every orifice of the left-leaning music press. As a genre, sonic fidelity plays a crucial role in neo-psychedelia. Hissy, lo-fi, treble-heavy, home-recorded records have for a while been the standard. That's all to say, When Kingdom Come — at least in terms of production — is one of the best-sounding contemporary psychedelic rock records there is.
Recorded at The Bomb Shelter by Andrija Tokic (also responsible for Alabama Shakes' Grammy-nominated Boys and Girls), When Kingdom Come carries a thump more apt to punish stereo speakers than eardrums and a rumble that's primed for radio play. While this no doubt creates crossover appeal, it could easily turn up the noses of those more aligned with the brasher side of indie rock.
In recent years, Majestico and local psych-soul act Fly Golden Eagle have been attached at the hip, sharing band members and bills at nearly every show they play (and man, do they play a lot of shows). FGE makes no attempt to morph into something different while dwelling in Majestico's reverberating shadow. The surfy and soulful grooves that define their own material sync seamlessly with Fitzpenn's songwriting, lending all their sonic nuances to the Majestico sound.
As is par for the course, all tracks are awash in generous heaps of reverb, lyrics praise the primitive and the mystical, and love is more or less all you need. At all times, When Kingdom Come's taut and toned delivery never quite wanders into a self-indulgent abyss. In fact, almost every song in this collection is focused and seems to know its purpose, covering all the trippy bases in the process. Surfy backbeats and twangy guitars surface on "Semyaza Sings" and "Gimme Love." "La La Gulag" and "Kiss on Time" use glammy riffs and punk tempos to rev things up without notice. "Terrify" gets particularly bluesy to play the Dylan-Goes-Electric card, while "Love Is God," "Black Giraffe," "Atropa Belladonna Blues" and "I Just Want To" remain the most consistent, droning out on three-chord riffs, single-note solos and a primal howl delivered with groovy bliss and a faux-British drawl.
To put it simply, When Kingdom Come is an eclectic pop-rock platter with lysergic leanings. While other '60s fetishists let their amplifiers pull them into the furthest reaches of the unknown, Majestico makes a priority of melody and lyrics, locking it all down with rock-solid production and grooves. The trippiest shit is left to leak out from between the lines.
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