A consistent blend of ’60s retro-psych-sway from this Chicago five-piece that is more Mission District than Wicker Park. Employing jangly tambourines, reverb-doused vocals and endless pools of distortion, Secret Colours steps into the VW bus and sets its Garmin for 1968. Only that road has been Googled before: for its use of echo, for its chord progressions and trippy aesthetic so often it’s become a default position. None of this is particularly bad, but if you actually have to namecheck ecstasy — which Secret Colours does on “Chemical Swirl” — to make your point, your creativity and appreciation for subtlety needs recharging. Here’s a question for Secret Colours, and while we’re at it, most bands infatuated with psych: Weren’t the ’60s about revolutionizing sound, not rehashing it?
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