The Limiñanas “Shadow People”

The Limiñanas “Shadow People” 2018. Because Music records. Neo-psychedelia from France. Shadow People is the Limiñanas’ sixth LP (I think we have at least three or four of their other releases) and it retains their sound that can be briefly summarized as The Velvet Underground meets The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Black Angels. Think long droning, trippy melodies in minor, atmospheric soaring rhythms, sometimes in English, sometimes in French. “Istanbul is Sleepy” is Velvet Underground gone a bit brilliantly goth. The title track, “Shadow People” is glorious, a hazy shoe-gazey psychedelic trip. “Dimanche” – sung in rich, echoey French which my shakey adolescent French studies doesn’t quite translate (I think he says “J’adore” at one point, also “vie” so I’m thinking it’s something about loving life) – is heavy on  tambourine punctuation and exotic guitar. “The Gift” sounds positively 80′s new wave (not a bad thing at all!), the guitar hook calling to mind Modern English’s “Melt With You.” “Motorizzati Marie” has a crazed spaghetti western flavor put to a fist-pounding beat and piano while “Pink Flamingos” is 60′s flower child saucer-eyed sweetness that segues into the heavy, dark “Trois Bancs.”

I like Allmusic’s overall summary of this latest Limiñanas release: Nothing too shocking, but also nothing to give lovers of their sound any pause or worries that, after releasing so many records in a short time frame, they might start phoning it in. The Limiñanas sound like they’re too cool and nonchalant to even have a phone, much less use one to make a less than great record.