The Luck of Eden Hall is a band from Chicago, Illinois, playing amazing music that combines old psychedelic rock with modern rock music in a fine way. I have previously reviewed a couple of their other CD’s that I already liked a lot, but I must say that on this new album they have finally really succeeded superbly. This could be described as a perfect psychedelic rock/pop album. The music has a lot of 60’s spirit, but it doesn’t sound like it’s bound to any time period in any way. The band has succeeded to write a lot of really great songs and I really like all the 13 songs on the CD. There’s just the right amount of psychedelic elements in there to make the music mind-expanding in the true sense of the term, but the music still doesn’t get too freaky at any point or take the listener on a bad trip.Everything works on this album: the playing, the effects (there’s plenty of backwards guitar, for example), the vocals, the lyrics, the sound, the atmosphere etc. The music includes a lot of excellent, melancholic melodies and tender (also acoustic) moments, but it often also rocks pretty hard with heavy fuzz sound and in a quite energetic, up-beat style. It’s rather guitar-driven (plenty of great guitar solos in there for a change!), but the bass player and drummer are allowed to show what they can do, as well. There are also some keyboards and you can hear some Mellotron sounds in several songs, for example. Some of the influences the band have include The Who, David Bowie, Radiohead, Nick Drake, Love, The Beatles, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, The Jam, Hawkwind, Igor Stravinsky and KISS… While listening to the harder psych rock pieces I’m often reminded of The Bevis Frond. It’s really hard to pick up any favorites from this album, but let’s say the opener, a psychedelic power pop number ”All Else Shall Added Unto You” has a lot of hit potential and it would fit in just perfectly to the next Psychedelica compilation, for example. Another really great, fast track is ”Beautiful Girl on the Radio” that has a slower, excellent chorus. The hazier and softer side of the spectrum is very nicely presented for example with the hallucinatory, dreamy ”She’s Using All the Colors”, and all the colors really are in use there… Also the two final ballads on the album, ”A Child in a Mine” and ”Sister Strange and the Stuffed Furry Things”, are totally awesome.In summary, When the Clock Starts to… is really top-notch stuff and one of the best albums I’ve heard for a while. So it’s absolutely worthwhile to get this masterpiece!

These guys are a wonderful breath of fresh air, and lend credit to the statement that Art is not dead. Very original, great hooks, well produced and crytic lyrics - and they're lovely blokes to boot!

The Luck of Eden Hall is a band from Chicago, Illinois, playing amazing music that combines old psychedelic rock with modern rock music in a fine way. I have previously reviewed a couple of their other CD’s that I already liked a lot, but I must say that on this new album they have finally really succeeded superbly. This could be described as a perfect psychedelic rock/pop album. The music has a lot of 60’s spirit, but it doesn’t sound like it’s bound to any time period in any way. The band has succeeded to write a lot of really great songs and I really like all the 13 songs on the CD. There’s just the right amount of psychedelic elements in there to make the music mind-expanding in the true sense of the term, but the music still doesn’t get too freaky at any point or take the listener on a bad trip.Everything works on this album: the playing, the effects (there’s plenty of backwards guitar, for example), the vocals, the lyrics, the sound, the atmosphere etc. The music includes a lot of excellent, melancholic melodies and tender (also acoustic) moments, but it often also rocks pretty hard with heavy fuzz sound and in a quite energetic, up-beat style. It’s rather guitar-driven (plenty of great guitar solos in there for a change!), but the bass player and drummer are allowed to show what they can do, as well. There are also some keyboards and you can hear some Mellotron sounds in several songs, for example. Some of the influences the band have include The Who, David Bowie, Radiohead, Nick Drake, Love, The Beatles, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, The Jam, Hawkwind, Igor Stravinsky and KISS… While listening to the harder psych rock pieces I’m often reminded of The Bevis Frond. It’s really hard to pick up any favorites from this album, but let’s say the opener, a psychedelic power pop number ”All Else Shall Added Unto You” has a lot of hit potential and it would fit in just perfectly to the next Psychedelica compilation, for example. Another really great, fast track is ”Beautiful Girl on the Radio” that has a slower, excellent chorus. The hazier and softer side of the spectrum is very nicely presented for example with the hallucinatory, dreamy ”She’s Using All the Colors”, and all the colors really are in use there… Also the two final ballads on the album, ”A Child in a Mine” and ”Sister Strange and the Stuffed Furry Things”, are totally awesome.In summary, When the Clock Starts to… is really top-notch stuff and one of the best albums I’ve heard for a while. So it’s absolutely worthwhile to get this masterpiece!

THE LUCK OF EDEN HALL – WHEN THE CLOCK STARTS TO WAKE UP WE GO TO SLEEP (CD from www.luckofedenhall.com ) The follow up to the excellent “subterrene”(2006), this album sees the band take their sound to a whole new level of enjoyment, containing 13 slices of prime time psych nuggets, each wrapped in a delicious candy floss coating, and riding some blistering, guitar fuelled, fairground rides. Right from the off, it is clear that business is meant, a twisted guitar propelling “All Else Shall Be Added to You” out of the speakers and into your mind, some swirling organ and strings adding depth and just the right degree of strangeness. Next up, the short and groovy, “Mary Ann’s Dressed in Peace” has a great big Paisley heart, early Soft Boys meeting The Dukes of Stratosphear, which is heaven to my ears. Taking a more relaxed approach, “Old Man Realise” has a lolloping bass line and a wonderful soaring guitar, whilst the acoustic psych-pop of “Bus Stop Daisy” sound just like you think it would, including the backward guitar at the end. Again played and produced by Gregory Curvey and Mark Lofgren, the album displays variety and depth, the duo letting the songs shine, effects judged to perfection and the playing maintaining a high level throughout, something evidenced on the full on guitar attack of “We Go To Sleep”, which is filled with manic energy and some frenetic fretwork. Or, you could check out the glorious vocals and lysergic melodies on “Cinnamon Mary and Her Skeleton Cane”, one of the albums finest moments, complete with chiming guitar and more excellent soloing, it just gets better and better. There is a hint of The Church on “The Time Has Come” (no bad thing), something not apparent on the much stranger “Beautiful Girl on the Radio”, the guitar sound rougher and the whole song having an “about to fall apart” feel to it. Things get stranger still on the slow burning acid drench of “She’s Using All the Colors” Joss sticks are recommended as you float downstream, blissful and grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat. Using backward guitar overload as its major weapon, “Down in Mexico” is a song that needs plenty of volume to bring out its qualities, but that’s alright as the sun will be shining and your windows will be open as you share the album with your neighbours, they will love it, honest. Demonstrating classic acid induced garage paranoia, “Just Can’t compromise My Security” is a burst of edgy noise, the drums rattling about inside the brain as choppy guitars creep through you veins. Gentler in construction, the drifting strings that run through “A Child in a Mine” add a slightly disturbing presence to the song, the lyrics re-enforcing the feeling. Finally, the band put it all together for the six minute finale that is “Sister Strange and the Stuffed Furry Things”, a future psychedelic classic, sounding like the Beatles meeting Kevin Ayers, in a ruined house covered in sunlight. Well, something like that anyway, whatever it is an excellent way to finish a rather brilliant album the lovers of the paisley sound, psych pop, or just good music, will thoroughly enjoy. (Simon Lewis)