Ramshackle surf / psyche / garage rockers Acapulco Lips are a genuine treasure. Hailing from Seattle, the band exist in a world where the likes of the Vaselines, Lush, Jefferson Airplane, the Velvet Underground, and 13th Floor Elevators spend their time jamming amidst a haze of sweetly scented smoke. Led by singer-bassist Maria-Elena Herrell, the band has been quietly blowing up the underground for over a decade, with Now their second full-length offering.
It kicks off with Welcome To The Other Side – a track that juxtaposes hazy vocals and jangly, summer-time guitar with crisp drums, the latter driving the track forward even if it seems more inclined to kick back with a cool drink and stare into the middle-distance. With Maria-Elena’s sweet vocals the focal point, it’s a gorgeous, sun-dappled track that immediately wraps itself around you and draws you into the welcoming embrace of the album. It’s followed by the naïve pop of You Won’t, which throws in addictive woah-ohs at every opportunity, although the stinging riff that powers the track is pure surf rock.
Things take a more psychedelic turn on the groove laden Everyday, which recalls the hazy glory of Lush to such an extent that you start scanning the packet for a 4AD logo. Hazy it may be, but it builds to a surprisingly rocky ending that paves the way for the gritty fuzz of The Flim-Flam. A perfect blend of ultra-distorted guitar, shuffling percussion, and ethereal vocals, it’s a brilliant song, and it condenses the remit of Acapulco Lips into just three-and-a-half too-short minutes. It’s followed by the sweetly simple Take My Hand, which has an irresistibly childlike charm. One of those songs that just worms its way into your subconscious, it finds Maria-Elena singing “today’s the day, our lives will change” to one of those bitter-sweet melodies that leaves you uncertain whether to laugh or cry. It’s a truly lovely moment and it neatly concludes the first half of the album on a slightly more reflective note.
Opening the album’s second half, the instrumental Pas d’echappatoire finds Acapulco Lips nodding to Pink Floyd via Cream’s White Room, the towering chords that open the track giving way to a faster, harder piece which, mired in fuzz and reverb, evokes the oil-lit fire of Saucerful Of Secrets. It’s back to business as usual on Slowly Disappearing, the taut beat driving a sixties-tinged rocker with plenty of attitude. It’s followed by the aptly titled Fuzzy Sunshine, a tremolo-washed track that leans heavily into the psyche territory that so attracted Nirvana to the Vaselines.
With the album racing past, Acapulco Lips head back to the beach for the surf-inflected Happy Were The Days, an unusual track that wrongfoots the listener with its minor key vocal and vibrant sense of longing. It’s followed by So Many Miles, which finds the spirit of the Velvet Underground looming large in Maria-Elena’s probing basslines, although it is sweeter of spirit than that legendary, if troubled, band and it ends on a nursery rhyme melody that is utterly wonderful.
This quirky little record returns to where it began with See You On The Other Side, which reprises the melody from the opening track before burying it under layer after layer of glorious noise. It’s a frantic, fun-filled finale and, if you hang around long enough, the band even throw out a churning wave of noise which, played loud enough, actually seems to pass right through you. Inevitably, it leaves you wanting to flip the record and start all over again.
Despite their decade in the sun, Now is the first time I’ve heard Acapulco Lips and it’s been such a pleasure to sit and try to do the album justice with a review. Part of their charm lies in the fact that they’re incredibly adept at exploring a huge range of influences – from surf to psyche, with hints of garage rock and (when they think no one’s looking) US alt rock in the form of Sonic Youth, the Meat Puppets, and Belly – but, more than that, there’s an unguarded innocence in the way they launch themselves into the music. How could you not be drawn along?
One of those brisk, breezy albums, it held me captivated to the extent that it took several listens before I finally got everything I wanted to say down, and I’m still not totally convinced I’ve captured the joy this album evoked in me. What more is there? Please buy a copy. The world can be a dark place at times, but when bands like Acapulco Lips find it in themselves to produce an album like Now, it all feels briefly brighter. 10/10
