Our Paths Related

For a band that proudly wears its influences on its sleeves the Society of Rockets has come up with one of the most original and engaging albums of 2007. San Francisco indie stalwart Josh Babcock already has a rich body of work to his credit, both with the Society and with his former outfit the Shimmer Kids Underpop Association. And he writes songs so mature and rich in arrangement you'd think him to be an elder statesman well beyond his years. His touchstone is late-'60s/early-'70s rock, especially the artists with a psychedelic and subversive bent. He manages to draw on a dichotomy of both the perfect psych-pop sensibilities of the Beatles and the sinister Americana of the Rolling Stones (without sounding anything like the latter band's hokey attempt at Beatles-ism Their Satanic Majesties Request). On Our Paths Related, horns and keys, with the occasional jaw harp and theremin, flesh out the standard rock four-piece and lend a classic feel that works well with Babcock's insistence on analog-sounding production. Epic opener "Come Ahead Then" drifts in on a synth line reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," then trudges into a paranoid unrest akin to the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" (a frequent reference point for the band — not a trendy one by any means — that also informs "Mountain Magic" and the sprawling "Horses of Mars"). "Teenage Gears" rolls the Stones reference into Exile on Main St. territory. "Time" shifts gears into a Sly & the Family Stone smooth soul workout complete with wah wah guitar and sublime horn charts. "No Dice" has a tremoloed guitar figure and carnival keyboard hook right out of the Elephant Six catalog (think Olivia Tremor Control or Oranger), while "Walk with Lions" is evocative of the shimmering transcendental gospel of Spiritualized. And "California's Burning" captures the zeitgeist of agit-prop provocateurs the MC5, highly appropriate for revisiting in the context of the turbulent political climate of the waning Bush regime, while its bridge soars spectacularly into the heavenly harmonies of the Beach Boys. But to play "spot the influence" would be lazy criticism, because the Society openly declares its reference points without ever sounding derivative of them. For a prolific band who have yet to quite achieve the wider recognition they so richly deserve, the Society have produced, here with their third album, a vastly compelling work that, if there is any justice in the world, will rocket them into the spotlight.