Album Review: Pharlee - Pharlee

Whether you want to use the word occult, psychedelic, mystical, or anything else, there has been an absolute tsunami of bands coming forward with ethereal women trying to captivate us like the devil in the blues. Many have been successful. Lucifer made a compelling record last year, I loved the album The Black Marbles made just before splitting up, and the most successful of them all was the debut Blues Pills record. So let's just say I'm amenable to what Pharlee is aiming to achieve with this record.

And as I just talked about ethereal women, this record opens with a song called.... "Ethereal Woman". The riff is fuzzy, intricate, and backed by stabs of Hammond organ. Even if it's an easy way to sound like a throwback, I never get tired of hearing organ in my rock. And a throwback Pharlee is, as this record sounds every bit the time capsule from the mid 70s. The haze covering the analog recording is like the layer of dust getting caught in the grooves of a record that has sat unplayed for decades. As soon as you put it on, you know this isn't a modern record.

The band spotlights 'blues-rock banshee' Macarena Rivera's voice, but not at the expense of the ensemble. She is given her time to shine, but in the midst of songs that highlight the band's playing. They move up and down the fret-boards while she waits for her moment to unleash. She fits the mold, but doesn't have the raw power of an Elin Larsson, or the detached charisma of Johanna Sardanis. Of course, part of that could be do to the production, where we don't get a really clear performance captured on tape. I think there is more to her than we're able to hear.

That would do a world of good, because the band hasn't yet found their songwriting legs. They have the sound nailed down, but the songs themselves aren't particularly engaging. The band tears through their riffs so fast they don't have much groove or melody to them, and that doesn't give Macarena a lot to play off. She wails in the right moments, but to rise above the noise, the nuance and movement of melody get lost in the shout.

With only five original songs here, and none of them standing out, it's hard to talk about the potential Pharlee does or doesn't have. They can play, and they can recreate the production of the past, but those are the least important parts of making great music. Everything comes down to writing great songs (or picking great ones to play), and Pharlee doesn't show here that they will be able to do that. This record is much like the time period it's inspired by; clearly not the future.