Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: When Tee Pee Records put out Quest for Fire's self-titled full-length last year, I got a promo of it, and it went promptly on my shelf. I didn't even listen. You know why? Because I knew that if I listened to it, I'd like it, and then it would be one more god damn album to buy, one more god damn band to like, one more god damn show to trek out to. Blah.

Of course, I got mine in the end, as Tee Pee now releases the follow-up from these Toronto argonauts, Lights from Paradise. Sure enough, a promo of the record came in the mail, and I put it on, and now I want both albums. So yeah, thanks a lot.

Lights from Paradise is eight tracks of sprawling psychedelia from the Canadian four-piece, ranging from the ritualistic stillness of opener ‘The Greatest Hits by God’, which seems to capitalize on what Om might sound like with two guitars, to the semi-raucousness of ‘Set Out Alone’ or the Dead Meadow freakout of ‘In the Place of a Storm.’  Of the sundry personality traits the band shows on the album, I prefer the moody, subdued side that comes out on the first track or ‘Psychic Seasons’, which boasts one of Lights from Paradise's few excursions into acoustics and also features some strings for a classy touch.

Of course, there's something to be said for the extended Beatles-style solo in closer ‘Sessions of Light’ as well, which shows Quest for Fire as a band with more than just a reverb pedal and propensity for jamming, complex as its melody structure and progression are. Take your pick, really.

Continue reading:  Quest for Fire See the Lights | The Obelisk.
(Thanks to JJ Koczan for the very kind permission)