Album Review: For The Season by The Gris Gris

Surrounded in an even thicker haze of psychedelic smoke than the Gris Gris' self-titled debut, For the Season is an unabashedly ambitious, occasionally difficult album that traces a journey to the deepest, darkest recesses of Greg Ashley's mind. Right off the bat, For the Season aims high, beginning with a six-song suite that not only encompasses the Gris Gris' chiaroscuro interplay of cavernous, ominous rock and light, dreamy folk (witness the contrast between "Cuerpos Haran Amor Extrano" and "Down with Jesus") but also throws in heady free jazz elements on "Ecks Em Eye" for good measure. Given its conceptual framework, For the Season might arguably be a more cohesive album than the Gris Gris' debut, but its individual songs aren't always quite as strong; as much atmosphere as "The Nonstop Tape" -- which sounds like field recordings from a haunted house full of hippie ghosts -- and "Skin Mass Cat" lend, they don't necessarily make for consistently compelling listening.

Full Review >>