The Pink Mountaintops

Outside Love

The Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love

05/05/2009 | Jagjaguwar 

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Outside Love Review

Pink Mountaintops is considered a side-project of Stephen McBean’s main group, psych-rock act Black Mountain. But maybe it shouldn’t be. Outside Love is the third offering from McBean’s hodge-podge of musicians, and it's billed as dramatic in scope "like a Danielle Steele novel." And that's not far off; McBean teams with Black Mountain vocalist Amber Webber for most of the record, offering a spit for spat, impassioned take on relationships. And like a tumultuous affair, the music drifts into different spacial territories, this time more acoustic and melodic; something that the long, guitar sprawl of Black Mountain can’t do. For example, the gorgeous, string lined “Vampire” and “Holiday” channel a southern, Neil Young vibe, yet openers “Axis: Thrones of Love” and “Execution” draw on more fuzzed out, guitar pop arrangements.

For those clamoring for the rock, Outside Love gets that going too at times. The fast, chuggy Sonic Youth-ish “The Gayest of Sunbeams” and the six minute plus “And I Thank You” both retain those elements that Black Mountain fans have come to love. And although there’s a tongue-and-cheek-ness to the whole love story premise, overall, those qualities are masked in song craftsmanship, perfect for those long, steamy summer nights.

—Michael D. Ayers
05.17.09


Outside Love Track Listing

  • Track#
  • Title
  • time
  • lyrics
  • 1
  • Axis: Thrones of Love
  • 4:50

  • 2
  • Execution
  • 3:53

  • 3
  • While We Were Dreaming
  • 3:55

  • 4
  • Vampire
  • 3:52

  • 5
  • Holiday
  • 3:22

  • 6
  • Come Down
  • 2:09

  • 7
  • Outside Love
  • 5:25

  • 8
  • And I Thank You
  • 6:21

  • 9
  • The Gayest of Sunbeams
  • 4:13

  • 10
  • Closer to Heaven
  • 4:51

  • Outside Love Notes

    "Outside Love" is ten songs of love and hate that read like a Danielle Steele romance novel but that would probably make for bad television.

    "Outside Love" is the third album by Pink Mountaintops, AKA Stephen McBean, who has slowly emerged as a distinctive voice and a very special contributor to the North American songbook. A veteran of the Vancouver/Victoria punk rock scene, McBean is best known for his contributions to acclaimed rock band Black Mountain, as principal songwriter, guitarist and co-vocalist.

    The ten songs on "Outside Love" are about or influenced by weddings in Montreal, winter, Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, Christmas albums, that one Exile song and that one Echo and the Bunnymen song, the Bermuda Triangle, being depressed in the sunshine, people who haven't made out yet but will in the future, The Everly Brothers, clowns in the ceilings, and bedrooms where skinheads used to live.

    Friends and family who contributed to or appear on "Outside Love", in no particular order, include Sophie Trudeau (A Silver Mt. Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Ted Bois (Destroyer), Jesse Sykes (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, sunnO)))), Phil Wandscher (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Whiskeytown), Josh Stevenson (Jackie O Motherfucker), Ashley Webber (The Organ, Bonnie Prince Billy), Amber Webber (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust), Matthew Camirand (Black Mountain, Blood Meridian), Joshua Wells (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust), Keith Parry (Superconductor, the Gay), and Tolan McNeil (Caroline Mark).

    Recorded at multiple studios, "Outside Love" was mixed at Elmwood Studios by John Congleton (Modest Mouse, Black Mountain, Explosions In The Sky, The Mountain Goats).

    Credits of Outside Love

    • Tolan McNeil
    • Mandolin, Pedal Steel, Guitar (Electric), Performer, Engineer
    • Joshua Wells
    • Guitar (Acoustic), Performer, Piano, Conga, Drums
    • Sophie Trudeau
    • Organ, Violin, Whistle (Human), Melodica, Performer, Xylophone, Vocals, Percussion
    • Stephen McBean
    • Organ, Guitar (Acoustic), Piano, Guitar (Bass), Vocals, Performer, Musician, Lyricist, Guitar (Electric), Drums, Percussion, Synthesizer


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