July 12, 2024 by A.S. Van Dorston

Brothers Graham reach new songwriting heights with hidden depths on their third full-length of California psych pop.

There’s something iconic in how brother bands like the Beach Boys, Sparks and Redd Kross have epitomized facets of California. Brothers Brandon and Shane Graham formed Dream Phases in 2016 with Keveen Baudouin and Anthony Marks, with help from many other musicians associated with the L.A. psych/power pop scene that includes Levitation Room and the Blank Tapes, who Brandon has worked with. Since then they’ve produced a consistently great batch of songs between two EPs, two albums and a load of singles. For their third album, they hooked up with producers Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck) and Matt Schuessler (Cat Power, Kurt Vile). Already with a wide range of influences from the Byrds, CSNY, Laurel Canyon folk and the Rain Parade, the band sought to add some kosmische, post-punk and shoegaze into the mix, as well as perhaps a shade of surf noir underneath the sunny psych pop surface. The title evokes a certain eeriness, even if it could have been a title of a Nancy Drew or Three Investigators mystery, The Curse of the Phantom Idol. Hey, I haven’t been a kid for several decades, and I’d read the book, see the movie and buy the soundtrack.

With the help of their new producers, none of their influences are at all obvious. “Turn Away” may have a motorik riddim, but the fuzz guitar is pure post-80’s garage psych. The only post-punk I can detect is possibly a faint whiff of the Teardrop Explodes on the jaunty “Wake Up Time,” some Television guitar tones, and the bass-driven intro to “Another Getaway.” The only discernable shoegaze elements are expertly woven into the sound design as wispy layers of Ride’s ethereal space rock guitars and vocal harmonies on “Middle of the Room.” This bodes well for the band’s cohesive creative vision, which maintains a recognizable arc from So Long, Yesterday (2019) and New Distractions (2021). “Living in a Cave,” “Come on Now” and “Haunt Me” may evoke the beach, but at dusk when it’s no longer safe to stay in the water. The latter is a great continuation of the dreamy, chiming sound of “Fall Awake,” a highlight that closed their last album. The piano-led “No Reflection” has Brandon going for a Lennon-like timbre, as well as similar emotional buttons. It shows some nicely evolving songwriting chops, the kind that, inserted into just the right moment of a movie or TV show, would blow the band’s exposure to the stratosphere.

Aside from Danish psych brethren The Sonic Dawn’s similarly titled Phantom from May, you can’t find a better new album for summertime listening.