DR. DOG - The Psychedelic Swamp LP

Label: Anti-

Accessibility and experimentation are in splendid balance on Dr. Dog’s latest, a reimagining of the band’s 15-year-old experimental debut tape. The starting point for the band’s eighth studio album is what bassist Toby Leaman has described as an “unlistenable” recording effort from Dr. Dog’s earliest days.

Some songs here (surely “Bring My Baby Back” and “Swampadelic Pop”) are destined to become signature Dr. Dog tunes, but stronger than the impression of any single track is the one Psychedelic Swamp leaves as a whole. This band cranks every dial, stretches every muscle, and explores every nook and cranny in its domain, and has one hell of a time doing it. It’s an album of swampadelic pop that spares none of either, straddling the line with the band’s signature side-by-side blend of swirling atmospheric noise and earworm melodies.

You can marvel at the strangely layered backdrops of these songs, get lost tracing the oddball sonic twists, and still come out with the chorus planted firmly in your head.