Inspired by similarly prolific songwriters – Mark E. Smith springs to mind – Count Vaseline has produced his second album in six months. Wasting little time since the Mighty Stef sadly imploded, Stefan Murphy’s latest opus under his new guise is an eclectic but economical offering. It takes the listener on a weird (‘FTP’) but wonderful (‘Bodies’) magical mystery tour, infused with garage and psych rock, and peppered with a little bit of soul.
Its rough edges actually add to the excitement, particularly on the pulsing, gleefully gloomy ‘Complicated’ and the Doors-like title track. Cascade’s finest cuts are placed side by side at the midway point (‘Carnival’ and ‘Cult’), both written during the American presidential election. The former is a skeletal cross between a lullaby and a death rattle, while the latter is a beautiful, waltzing mix of Hawkwind and the Shangri-Las. It also serves as something of a call to arms, as Murphy croons, “Today’s the perfect day to take that stand that you’ve been singing about/ Ever since the day that you could talk/ Do it now before it’s too late/ Sitting on your hole is passé.” Indeed.