Castlemania
| Castlemania | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Thee Oh Sees | ||||
| Released | May 10, 2011 | |||
| Genre | Garage rock, psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, experimental | |||
| Length | 41:56 | |||
| Label | In The Red | |||
| Thee Oh Sees chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| The A.V. Club | (B+) |
| One Thirty BPM | (74%) |
| Paste | (7.9/10) |
| Pitchfork | (7.6/10) |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | |
| SPIN | (7/10) |
Castlemania is a studio album by the American garage rock band Thee Oh Sees, the fifth album released by the band under the name "Thee Oh Sees" and their eleventh overall. It was released on May 20, 2011, by In The Red Records. It was the first of two studio albums to be made by the band in 2011, the other being Carrion Crawler/The Dream, which was released in November. It was recorded by a skeleton lineup of John Dwyer and Brigid Dawson along with some guest musicians.
Like the band's past album Dog Poison, and the later album Putrifiers II, the album was created mostly by frontman John Dwyer. Brigid Dawson was the only other core member of the band to appear on the album. The liner notes (apparently written by Dwyer) state that it was "the last record worked on at 608 c haight street in san francisco (very near and dear to my heart and heavy in my memories) before control was assumed by rich assholes. enjoy". Bandmember Brigid Dawson explained that "Castlemania was really John doing a bunch of home recordings, and then taking them into a studio and really layering it. He took some time over it." When asked about the theme of death on the album, Dawson suggested that the recent deaths of some close friends could have factored into Dwyer's songwriting. Dwyer described the album's material as "songs about bad things, packaged in a summery record about getting numb to life and its little pleasures as you take it for granted with age.”
The album concludes with three covers: "I Won't Hurt You" by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, "If I Stay Too Long" by The Creation, and "What Are We Craving?" by Norma Tanega. "What Are We Craving?" is a rare example of bandmember Brigid Dawson singing lead vocals.
The album contained no singles, but a music video was made for the first song, "I Need Seed". It features John Dwyer wearing different masks, and then riding his bicycle to the beach in a series of still photos.
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