#alpine decline

For the Betterment of Well People is Alpine Decline’s 10th album, and by all accounts, not all of the others work in this same sunshine-infused psychedelic vein.  Yet from the very beginning, this album captures the loosely slung, ecstatic vibe of late 1960s bands like Vanilla Fudge, the Byrds or the Chocolate Watch Band. “I Got Up (Just like John Sinclair)” tips a hat to the MC5 manager, but pick up on that band’s hard blues style. Instead, it’s a ramble, a jangle, a psychedelic shamble, built on chiming guitars and burbling organs, never very emphatic but rather enveloping. It might remind you a little of the Beta Band.

“Flight Instruction” twists guitar notes in a mystic, sitar-like way, advocating for enlightenment in the haziest of ways (“You must climb to the top of the stairs”) but bringing the weight in giant, echoing guitar chords and entropic noise. “Gems” is a raggedy, indie-pop jingler, nudged on through the haze of guitar picking by insistent bass, and Jonathan Zeitlin’s reedy, earnest voice. “Through Waterfalls” bolsters its lavish, Love-ish baroque pop arrangements with the sound of falling water. “Since that day, something I’m afraid to mention, I’ve been staring at the world from a parallel dimension,” sings Zeitlin, and yes, the song and the album inhabit a very trippy corner of the music world.

Does it matter that there's a link to China? Probably not. Though American and British bands have mostly jettisoned these styles, some fertile explorations are happening in Latin America (Boogarins, Bonifrate) and perhaps other corners of the world. If you’re going to transcend the material plane, what difference does it make where you’re standing when you start rolling tape?