The Vickers, Ghosts – album review

Italy’s new psych-poppers, The Vickers, have released their first longplayer. Titled Ghosts, it’s a winding and colourful record that weaves together a sugarsweet musical tapestry. There’s plenty of sixties love bubbles floating by here; bright guitars, simple singalongs and high-pitched, warbled voices that shimmy across soft synthesiser.

One can draw obvious shoeprints to the front door of heavyweights like the Beatles, of course, but there’s something a little different here – a nineties howl in the distorted guitar tones, a soft grimness that takes this record from the simple, sunny bouncing of pop-enthusiasm into a darker and slightly more complex place.

The album opens with its pair of thus-far released singles, ‘She’s Lost’ and ‘I Don’t Know What It Is’. ‘She’s Lost’ ticks itself in like a candy clock, sweet falsetto skipping over the minute hand – it’s a great track, swooping in and out in all of the right places. ‘I Don’t Know What It Is’ continues the pop-chain with smooth and shiny links, building itself up to a headspin of momentum and kicking into growling gear.

The circling, reverb-dripped guitars and breathy vocals of ‘Hear Me Now’ and ‘Inside A Dream’ would fit in comfortably on Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker. What this record adds to the expanding repertoire of twenty-first century psych-pop is not overly new, but that’s not to discredit it in the slightest. Ghosts is a solid, balanced album that’s like stretching back on a striped deckchair to listen to – colourful, warm and kaleidoscopically smooth.

You can keep up to date with The Vickers via their Facebook page or, if you are in Europe, catch them on tour on the following dates:

Apr 25 Sottoscala 9 Latina, Italy
Apr 26 Forte Fanfulla Rome, Italy
Apr 30 Dalla Cira Pesaro, Italy
May 01 Moog Ravenna Ra, Italy
May 02 Osteria Re Di Denari Portogruaro, Italy
May 09 Lio Bar Brescia, Italy
May 10 SMART LAB Rovereto, Italy
May 20 Tankstell Bar Saint Gallen, Switzerland
May 22 Rockerill Charleroi, Belgium
May 23 La Taverne Des Gaulois Saint Laurent Blangy, France
May 24 V11 Rotterdam, Netherlands
May 25 The Victoria London, United Kingdom
May 27 El Diablo w/Cosmonauts Lille, France
Jun 06 Gulliver Pergine Valsugana, Italy
Jun 14 Notte Bianca Locarno Locarno, Switzerland

The Vickers, Ghosts review by Chloe Mayne