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Released on April 7, 2015 via Nothing Too Fancy Music
Recording an album at Abbey Road would be a dream come true for any band, but for one that lists The Beatles and Pink Floyd among its main influences it must be a form of worship. Two weeks from the spark of an idea to make the trip to London, the US jam band Umphrey’s McGee found themselves in Studio 2 with a scant twelve hours to record an album in their sonic temple. A daunting task for sure, but when environment and inspiration conspire then the muse can be awoken from her golden slumbers and that is what happened one day in June 2014.
Taking a pragmatic approach, Umphrey’s McGee settled on reworking tracks from their back catalogue and capitalising on muscle memory by capturing studio versions of well-worn live tracks. ‘Bad Friday’ fits the latter description. Having been debuted on New Year’s Eve 2013 it had not yet found its home on a studio release. Funky wah-wah guitar bops along like early 80s Talking Heads. The feel-good groove continues into ‘Rocker Part 2’ where it meets a heavier prog vibe with some dynamic drum work from Kris Myers. Not only does Abbey Road inspire great performances, its desk and room ambience add a sheen and a natural live sound to these recordings. They sound lovely.
The then-current album Similar Skin provides ‘Cut the Cable’ and ‘No Diablo’. Nowhere is the Beatles influence more prominent than on these pared-down acoustic renderings. ‘No Diablo’ has more than a whiff of ‘Hey Jude’ about it. As a Fab Four-agnostic myself interest dips a little at this point so ‘Out of Order’ is a welcome upturn. Its positive energy is infectious with hints of Steve Hillage’s solo work. It’s remarkable that all seven minutes were laid down in one take. Bringing their live chops to bear this is one of four tracks which were run through as a mini-set, capturing that spontaneity. Only vocals were later touched up in post-production. Perhaps because of this approach these songs are the most vibrant and satisfying of all. ‘Plunger’ and ‘Eat’ twist and turn with heavy riffing and keep-em-guessing time signature changes.
The fourth of these one-take recordings is, unsurprisingly and forgivably, a Beatles cover – ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’. I’m sure other listeners will get more from it than I do but in fairness to the band they do state “We opted to tack it on. Hope you don’t mind”. I don’t mind but yes it is superfluous to what is otherwise a really good set. The muse can go back to sleep now, safe in the knowledge that she did her job and did it well.
