The Lucid Dream - Compulsion Songs album review

Carlisle space cadets offer psychedelic rock for the 21st-century

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The Lucid Dream Compulsion Songs album cover

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Those heads still lamenting The Horrors’ decision to move away from kosmiche-inspired mind melting into smoother terrains will find plenty to enjoy with The Lucid Dream’s latest onslaught. As Bauhaus did several generations before them, the Carlisle space cadets have discovered the joys of throwing reggae-derived dynamics into their oeuvre and this, much like stirring 500 micrograms of Albert Hoffman’s chemical creation into a pot of mushroom tea, makes for a potent and memorable brew.

With the bass and drums brought to the fore, effect pedals are set to ‘stun’ and the results grip from the first blast of noise to the last. Bad Texan sets a pace that refuses to let up throughout. The Emptiest Place evokes the spirit of Ennio Morricone but it’s with the closing one-two of Nadir and Epitaph that The Lucid Dream truly hit the spot. Motorik psychedelia at its finest, The Lucid Dream have stepped up.

The Lucid Dream Live in London

Julian Marszalek
Julian Marszalek

Julian Marszalek is the former Reviews Editor of The Blues Magazine. He has written about music for Music365, Yahoo! Music, The Quietus, The Guardian, NME and Shindig! among many others. As the Deputy Online News Editor at Xfm he revealed exclusively that Nick Cave’s second novel was on the way. During his two-decade career, he’s interviewed the likes of Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne, and has been ranted at by John Lydon. He’s also in the select group of music journalists to have actually got on with Lou Reed. Marszalek taught music journalism at Middlesex University and co-ran the genre-fluid Stow Festival in Walthamstow for six years.