Fronted by multimedia artist and vocalist Laura Peters, along with Max Harrison (guitar) and Liam McCormick (bass), Psychic Love is a Los Angeles-based indie rock trio, who describe their sound as “dream grunge” and “as if Nancy Sinatra had a love child with Frank Black.” Now if you had been frequenting this site towards the end of last year, you may recall that I wrote about “Nancy,” a bluesy, psych rock song with menacing lyrics that seemed like threats, recriminations and sexual come ons simultaneously while evoking a slowly unfolding and uneasy dread and horror. “Ultralight,” the first single off the trio’s recently released full-length debut The Hive Mind is a propulsive and jangling guitar pop ballad that sounds as though it owes a debt to Phil Spector‘s Wall of Sound with a rousingly anthemic hook paired with Peters’ plaintive and tender vocals. Sonically, the song sounds as thought it nods at La Sera‘s latest effort Music For Listening To Music To and Rilo Kiley but with a coolly, self-assured swagger.
As the band’s frontman Laura Peters explains in press notes, “Oddly, I first wrote ‘Ultralight’ while taking care of a friend, who was having a bad acid trip. Apparently the guitar lines were so soothing that every time I stopped playing, he looked horrified and pukey. I ended up writing about nine verses. Obviously they all didn’t make it into the final cut.”
