Album Review: The Total Rejection - "Off The Top Of Our Heads...And Other Forbidden Pleasures"

 

Signed to Raving Pop Blast recordings who were responsible for unleashing the excellent Mudd Club on the world last year, this is the fourth album by the Total Rejection but your correspondent's first encounter with them. My first impressions on hearing opener Degenerate Head Movie Turn On is that there's a definite Doors influence here with the swirling Manzarek style keyboards and spindly guitars although the vocals are more early Iggy (or maybe early '90s NYC glam-punks Motorcycle Boy) than Morrison. It's definitely an intriguing mix though and will leave you keen to investigate further.

It seems that every track in here throws an extra ingredient into the mix which is always a good sign - Turn Your Head Around keeps the Iggyisms in there but adds in a dose of the Who with its tight rhythms and choppy guitar. Twitching And Jabber could easily have been done by one of the more sinister Nuggets garage bands like the Music Machine or the Chocolate Watch Band before Ten Minutes Off The Top Of My Head takes the main riff to the Stones' Satisfaction, feeds it through a blender and whacks on a horn section (similar to the Byrds' Artificial Energy) to come up with something pretty intriguing.

And so it continues throughout as the album swings from Stooges style freakouts (Everybody Loves Grass, Paul's Eye John's Teeth) through sinister Seeds style psychedelia (Garden of Green although it's a bit of an obvious rip-off of I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night) to Beatles/Who style fired up Merseybeat (Drive Me Home Or Don't Waste My Time, I'm Coming Home) with the only real miss being the slightly meandering seven minute psychedelia of She's Making Money Off Me.

Although it's occasionally undone by moments where the Total Rejection wear their influences a bit too obviously on their sleeve, Off The Top Of Our Heads is a good example of a band taking the classic '60s garage rock formula and giving it a 21st century nip and tuck to (mostly) stop it being too predictable. Certainly any Nuggets aficionados reading should find plenty to enjoy here.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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