Less than a year after their welcome return to the shelves with their first album together in almost 20 years, the original members of
Medicine
returned with another installment in their thrilling comeback.
To the Happy Few
was a satisfying return to the sound
perfected in their early days, then gave it a slightly modern tweak. Plus, it had great songs. What
Home Everywhere
does is almost as impressive. Coming back after years and doing something worthwhile is amazing; keeping the momentum going and crafting a second album's worth of thrilling noisegaze pop is nearly as shocking. The band isn't doing anything too different here -- still turning
Jim Goodall
's gigantic, echoing drums,
Brad Laner
's soaring and grinding layers of guitars, and
Elizabeth Thompson
's cooing, dream-inducing vocals into hazy, overloaded gold. Skipping spending a year on the road promoting their comeback LP and instead dedicating their time together to recording means that there is a great deal of care in the sound and arrangements. The pieces fit together perfectly and the few chances they take pay off really interestingly. The swooning psych pop of "Cold Life" signals a poppier, sweeter direction the band could take (and gives youngsters like
Tame Impala
a quick history lesson), the epic-length album closer "Home Everywhere" shows that the trio can stretch out and get weird while still holding the listener's interest, and everything else sounds so bracing that even when they tread a little water, it's totally worth immersing yourself in the whirlpools of sound they create. Not that they spend much time doing that; as on
Happy Few
the band sounds firmly planted in the here and now, showing little interest for merely rehashing the past. Instead,
is a valiant second attempt to grab the past by the throat and drag it into the present day. Once again, they have succeeded and prove that they aren't just an oldies act; they are at the forefront of the modern shoegaze/noise pop scene. ~ Tim Sendra