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One of my favorites from the 90s, Luna's
Bewitched. One of the last performances by the great Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground guesting on a couple of the songs, and they do carry on that twin guitar sound. Songs flow from one to another like honey. Quirky but not undecipherable lyrics. Great guitar playing from Dean and Sean Eden. And as always, drummer Stan Demeski brings along some of his distinctive Feelies feel, albeit slightly toned down on this one. Ten songs without a duffer in the bunch, opening with the wonderful "California (All The Way)", followed by the very fun "Tiger Lily" and then one of my very favorites in the first guest spot for the distinctive Sterling Morrison, "Friendly Advice", that goes on effortlessly for 6 1/2 minutes with one of the best extended guitar workouts of its time. And when they get to the middle of the album and "This Time Around", with the Hammond Organ and vibes, I'm so there. Very cool listen. Kind of an indie rock classic in my mind, if you can have indie rock from Time Warner. Sure, I love Dean's previous band Galaxie 500, and Luna can never really take the place in my mind of that much more groundbreaking band, but they're still one of my favorites, and the aptly titled
Bewitched is more of a goto type album for me than any of the others. Got real nice sound too, really have to crank it up, unlike most new music. Was just reading a nice interview with Dean talking about all things Luna and G500, and the Luna retrospective from last year, as well as what he and his wife Britta are up to nowadays.
