eMusic Review 0
“You’re so American,” sneers Portugal. The Man guitarist and songwriter John Baldwin Gourley, a dude who looks a Fleet Foxes roadie but sings in a tenor/falsetto that’s steeped in the glitter of a thousand glam rock gods, as a bed of Ziggy-induced acoustic power chords, hand claps and strings rise around him like a forest of man-sized posies.
As suggested by its name and punctuation, Portugal. The Man specializes in shamelessly anthemic folderol, and on its sixth disc (and major label debut), the foursome embraces its inner Marc Bolan to the exclusion of nearly anything else. The neo-prog, math rock, and jam-band electronica trimmings of its early catalog have fallen away to focus on that early ’70s moment when psych put on its platform boots and reached for the stars. “Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now)” is T. Rex as bolstered by Sgt. Pepper strings and Spiders From Mars guitars. “I want a world like my teacher told me it would be/I want a love like my parents told me it would be,” Gourley squeaks as if riding a unicorn into a cloud of helium, and there are 10 more bejeweled-hands-in-the-air moments just like that.
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