Guillemots "Through the Window Pane"

"Through the Window Pane" (mp3) feels like a pastiche of some of the weirder British soul music of the past few decades---the cherry-colored soul of Dexy's Midnight Runners chases the Associates down a hall, bumping into Simply Red's Mick Hucknall, who's trying to work his way out of a conversation with Keith Emerson. What Emerson's doing there I have no idea either. Phew. I'm about all referenced out for today. You guys will have to make your own lazy comparisons from here. I'll move on and talk about the neat level of whimsy in this song, all of these zagging organs and hopping xylophones and whirlygigs of all sorts continually being reined in by a staggered Ringo drum riff (whoops, another one) and a definite plan of action. The song just keeps going up, pasting little cut-out construction paper drawings of animals on the wall as it rises, eventually hitting the ceiling with a wonderful climax that yells and celebrates some sort of stupefying occasion, like a purple sunrise or something. It's a really purpose-driven, action-packed kind of psychedelia, and singer Fyfe Dangerfield (one of the cooler names in rock right now probably) possesses one of the grooviest soaring tenors I've heard in a while.

Through the Windowpane is here to buy.