The Fresh and Only's

Artist- The Fresh and Only's
Album- Play It Strange
Label- In The Red
Genre- psych surf-punk
The F&O’s third album (in 2 years!) has the band making huge strides artistically (and not in a bad way). The sound’s slightly cleaned up, but it’s still tropical surf garage rock with a heavy dose of reverb. Coming from the psych-garage West Coast scene that produced Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees and more, this album is wonderful and hopefully will gain the band new recognition.

#1- Waterfall - great track, between the faintest hints of “ooh” in the background, the typical F&O’s jangliness, and the spaghetti-western riff, I’m hooked.
#5- I’m Shook Up - not Tim Cohen’s (formerly of band Black Fiction) greatest vocal performance, but the combination of the steady rhythm section and the 50’s guitar vibe makes this another winner.
#4- Tropical Island Suite - excellent if you’re willing to play a 7 minute track (with a fuzzed-out breakdown half-way through).
#7- Fascinated - undoubtedly tied for my favorite track (besides “Waterfalls”), full of lovely pop distortion, a bit of 90’s sound, and the chorus of “you’re such a pretty girl”