The first decade of the new century saw the term psychedelic being applied to any band that had a touch of reverb on its guitars or the ability to produce a mix with instruments panning across the audible spectrum. So you could very well call the electro-pop trio Unicycle Loves You psychedelic, but the production effects of head Unicycle Jim Carroll are more cinematic than psychedelic. His dark, sweeping splashes of sonic color pull you into a netherworld that’s not exactly warm and fuzzy, although the appealingly lo-fi sound can be fuzzy on occasion. The album opens with a threatening instrumental with a sci-fi feel marked by howling synthesizers, feedback effects, and what may be a wailing lonely female voice. The mood is broken by the opening tune. “Quagga” is a bright pop song with toy piano keys, distorted guitar, a bouncy Brit-pop melody, and a breathy vocal from bassist Nicole Vitale. “A Second Look” is an instrumental fragment that blends the sound of clanging bells and a far-off fright train and sets up “There’s a Giant Walking in My Heart.” The opening hook sounds like its played on an old-fashioned coffee percolator, while the chorus features clanging guitar and jazzy nonsense syllables crooned by Carroll and Vitale. “Magnetic Horses” is all distorted guitar, but cheerful keyboard-generated sounds explode out of the mix like rainbow-colored popcorn. “Justine” blends surf guitar and a throbbing new wave beat with Carroll’s frustrated vocal for a portrait of a relationship fraught with danger and desire. Like the broken mirror in the cover art, the tunes here are fragmented but playful and multifaceted, marked by numerous unexpected shifts of style that will keep you pleasantly on edge, not unlike a unicycle rider, one might suppose. – j. poet
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