Hypatia Lake, "...And We Shall Call Him Joseph," Sad Robot

From the neon pink cover art to the sonics within, "...And We Shall Call Him Joseph" is a flashback to--but not a rip-off of--Dayglo-era Love Battery. (2002 debut Your Universe, Your Mind rocked the neon chartreuse.) While one Seattle band may be alive and kicking, the other dead and gone, their music is similarly dark and fuzzy--sometimes quiet and lovely, sometimes loud and distorted.

Divided into "scenes" (rather than songs), the local quartet's second concept recording concerns a rebellious candy factory worker in the fictional town of Hypatia Lake. In other words: S.F. Sorrow meets Willy Wonka. Do they pull it off? Hard to say as the guitars and keyboards frequently overwhelm the vocals, but it's a sure bet that adherents of 1960s psychedelia and 1990s shoegaze will find common ground in this Roald Dahl-inspired song cycle.



Note: Yes, the ellipses before and quotation marks around the album title are intentional. Punctuation--gotta love it. Poster and band images from Hypatia Lake's MySpace page.