Mr. Gnome have crafted a behemoth of a double LP. The married duo navigate deeply intimate themes through tie-die tinted glasses, saturating the record with an other-worldly aroma that would even make Sean Lennon stir from his DMT induced slumber.
The thing about The Day You Flew Away that impresses me the most is its spaciousness. Most tracks hover around 4:30 in length separate by much shorter transitions that could have just as easily been tacked on to the feature-length songs — a decision that adds to the spacious feel of the album and allows the more memorable tracks stand on their own. Beautifully layered melodies swirl around distorted bass lines and meticulously intriguing drumming. Repetition is used to comfort the listener, freeing Mr. Gnome to do literally whatever they want throughout the 77 minute romp through grief and rebirth. Space Opera, a heartbreaking tale of a futile revenge, is performed with masterful conviction and precision. The ebb and flow of the vocals, drums, and guitar each having their turn in the spotlight before joining together in an ass-kicking climax.
Songs like How to Talk in Technicolor and The Moon show off how Mr. Gnome seamlessly meld electronic synths and beats into their sound. The psychedelia doesn’t come from towering 15 guitar amps in Stevie Nicks’s bathroom, but from carefully choosing sounds and intelligently assembling them around Mr. Gnome’s greatest strength: the vocals. Everything in the album is baked in a health portion Nicole’s voice. Harmonizing and whispering the listener into a trance, one might compare her to Chino Moreno, but the texture gives more of dreamy, Lana Del Rey vibe. Her voice dominates every track, but the simple lyrics allows room for the other instruments to bubble to the surface.
The simple rhythms and patterns with slight variation throughout the song are beautifully crafted and never overstay their welcome. Each track is presented with the confidence of a lead single, and the result is a double-LP packed with memorable melodies that leaves the album feeling like an intimate fever dream that can’t possibly exist in real life.
The Day You Flew Away is one of my all-time favorite psychedelic records not only because of the substance of the music, but its optimism. Its murky valleys give way to majestic peaks on Gold Edges and Insane Love. Sun Drugged, essentially a power chord ballad paired with a marching drum beat, remind of the grandiose sides of Muse but with restrained, delicate vocals that gives the whole track a whimsical, sun-drenched sound, circumventing the fist-pumping path we’ve heard too many times before and forging their own cosmic destiny.