Release Date: 1991
Song Count: 11
Rating: 1.8/10
Description:
Today, fate has decided to lend us this work by long-disbanded psychedelic space pop and rock band Magic Mushroom Band - formed in 1982 and "disbanded" (theoretically on hold, but practically just fully and indefinitely inactive) in 1995, these guys initially started out making rock music with a sort-of abstract twist to it, before starting a more electronic sounding side-project by the name of Astralasia that became far more popular, taking the priority of the members over their original project. This eventually caused the band to become inactive in the rock scene, but during their time within it, they released Spaced Out, an album that blends together the foundations of pop and rock with ambient interludes and some traditional or otherwise lesser used instruments within modern music.
The 11 tracks the record has to offer are subsequently all over the place when it comes to genres, styles and moods, switching from calm, atmospheric lead-ups to melodic and almost "cheesy" sounding older music with often not only just guitars, bass and drums, but plenty of other tricks up the band's sleeve. The quality of these songs is also a factor that ends up varying due to this, though overall finding itself pointing more downwards than upwards, as the highs are mildly charming though ultimately fleeting moments of pleasurable music, and the lows are, to put it simply, absolutely unlistenable.
The "main" courses, while listenable and perhaps even decent in some occasions, feel extremely dated even by the standards of when this album was released, being reminiscent of pieces one would associate with decades older than the 90's, and mostly fall out of memory as they lack anything in particular to hook one in. The instrumental, more ambient tracks steer into a similar direction, making some creative use out of saxophones, woodwind instruments and other tools to enhance their feels, but not managing to go any further. Any time the band tried to go more experimental and less formulaic with a few of the songs in the record, it burns and crashes down catastrophically; I legitimately could not physically finish listening to the track "Squatter in the House" beyond its first half due to how uncomfortable the listening experience was.
Is Spaced Out a true sheer and utter failure of music that should have never been made, let alone released to the public? Perhaps not - at least not all of it. There's small hints of jewels to find at particular corners of the album, but they fail to have a substantial impact on the sound of the album overall, and so it's easy to have one's sight clouded by a lot of the album's output being either dull and played-out or outright viscerally irritating to listen to. Still, this is probably not a record that will ever get a re-listen from me again. I hope the members of Magic Mushroom Band are much happier pursuing their newer project and have found a musical space where they can achieve much more than with their time indulging themselves in the psych rock/pop scene.