Levitation - Meanwhile Gardens
4/10
Levitation were formed in 1990 from the ashes of the House of Love as guitarist Terry Bickers' new project; their first LP was warmly received but what happened next? They split in 1993 after completing this, their so far unreleased second full album, and it's a strange time to release this unless a tour or reunion is in the offing?
There's variety in the songs; eighties goth rubs shoulders with the shredding mindwarping of Ride or Swervedriver, often in the same tracks. Magnifying Glass is looser, reminiscent of Piper era Pink Floyd, but feels out of place with its more playful sound; dub guitars and drums usher in Evergreen like early The Cure with vocal ambition, and Stewart Copeland banging the skins. Vocally, the vibe's clean, Depeche Mode-esque, but lyrically it's prog-goth. The words, though, are too vague to be sung so earnestly so it adds up to far less than the sum of its parts.
If you love a mesmerising, kaleidoscopic guitar sound but want the next step, this is it; but it's 2015 not 1993 so fairly redundant except for nostalgia, and it didn't come out then, so we can't remember it
4/10. They could have done it, but it's twenty years past it's best before date.
Nick
