Love Psychedelico
This Is Love Psychedelico
Hacktone Records
by Al Kaufman
When you’re a music critic, a lot of crap comes before your desk. Every once in a while the crap is so fantastic you can’t not listen to it. Love Psychedelico is such crap. Their press release labeled the Japanese duo as "insanely catchy garage pop" and compared them to, no really, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. It then went on to say that they’ve sold out Budokan Stadium numerous times, and that they have their own pinball game and line of organic coffee. How can a critic not be intrigued? I mean, even the Beatles never got their own coffee line. There must be something to this duo, right?
Nope. Turns out that Kumi and Naoki are just two Japanese co-eds obsessed with classic rock. Many of their songs have that sort of ’70s feel, as long as those songs are filtered through a synthesizer. From there they can lay down the beats and do their best Britney Spears imitation, then move onto becoming the Indigo Girls (on just a touch of helium) on "These Days." Their lyrics often toggle between Japanese and English, often in the same sentence. The whole process is a glorious wreck, like watching the bearded lady pick a scab off her knee. You want to stop, but if you do, maybe you will miss something even more absurd.
I’m sure these two have the best of intentions. I’m sure they really love their rock and roll. They have to; they dress in black and give good attitude on their press photo. And I’m sure the critic at USA Today really thought he was telling the truth when he called them "riveting rock," but, wow, this is terrible and contrived, like a 16-year-old with fairly good musical tastes ripping off all her favorite bands; and I mean that in the best way.
If you decide that you like to still want to listen after reading this (and it may be like having to see an accident when you’re sitting in traffic), then you can listen to Love Psychedelico on 
