In the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, our bespectacled, bucktoothed singer is cryogenically frozen in the sixties, and brought back thirty years later to foil the unsavoury plans by his arch enemy, Dr. Evil, to take over the world.
I can only presume that something similar has happened to Marco Rossi. The good news is that, like Austin, the only way you could possibly describe Since Returning From The Moon is ‘groovy, baby.”
Disclaimer: I am well aware of the fact that Rossi has been around for years. You don’t need to complain in the comments about it. I just thought this was a good way to convey the overriding feel of the album.
That said, there’s little sign of the summer of love on the opening track ‘Don’t Have Nightmares‘, which put me more in mind of The Flaming Lips‘ fabulous 1995 release Clouds Taste Metallic, and sounds perhaps how Brian Wilson might have done, if he’d taken some mind-expanding drugs. Oh, wait.
‘Watery Lane‘ is a fine Kinks-style jaunt, at least at the beginning, before Rossi goes all trippy on us again, but it’s never less than a lot of fun. Then there’s more ‘Beach Boys gone dark‘ on the tremendous ‘Kensington Gore‘.
‘The Institutional Stairs‘ begins all Pink Floyd and ends like something off The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. Honestly, I felt as though I’d smoked a very strong spliff less than halfway through Since Returning To The Moon and said reefer only intensifies with each subsequent listen.
After the jumpy ‘Can’t Cut It‘, the trippiness of ‘I Can’t‘ kind of breaks the flow a little, but then we’re hit with a quite genius ‘pop’ single in ‘What Was Lost‘, an amalgamation of all the best bits of the so-called British Invasion bands of the 1960s. A stunning track indeed.
‘Death Moon‘ has a glorious proggy guitar-led intro and a vocal big on echo which gives it an overwhelmingly intense aura that’s impossible to resist. I’d go as far as to say it’s the centrepiece of the album before the unpredictable vocal phrasing of ‘Harvester Of Likes‘ delights us, whistles and all, reminding me a little of the structure of They Might Be Giants‘ ‘Where Your Eyes Don’t Go‘, which is no bad thing.
Possibly my favourite moment here though is when Rossi visits glam-rock for ‘Dregs‘. At first it’s like Billy Connolly has joined Sweet, as animated as one of the big Scot’s comedy routines, and just as entertaining.
‘Lightweight‘, which closes the record, is Rossi’s Moody Blues moment, and after such a glorious voyage through the history of psychedelic music, who could begrudge him that?
Since Returning From The Moon is simply one of the best albums of 2024 so far. You’d be mad to miss out.
