Retail Simps - Tantric Decapitation: 69 minutes of trichotomy and liquefaction 2LP

In trying to think of similar precedents to make Canada’s Retail Simps jump to the double album less daunting to an imagined audience that’s a little afraid of so-called artistic growth, I came up with Axemen - Three Virgins, Three Versions, Three Visions (Flying Nun, 1986) and Neil Michael Hagerty & The Howling Hex – The Howling Hex (Drag City, 2003). But that reads like a sales pitch to myself….. and I’ve already bought a copy! 

Mitch mentioned ‘Exile On Main Street’ (Rolling Stones Records, 1972), which I think is just as applicable, as we’ve unlocked a more sprawling and spontaneous Simps. In this slight adjustment to their dynamic that’s a little more CCR/’Like Flies On Sherbert’, a little less Woolly Bully, the Retail Simps have created their best album yet and solidified themselves as a definitive band of THIS era in the longstanding tradition of feel-good, artful, amateur rock ‘n’ roll.

I think you’ll enjoy ‘Tantric Decapitation: 69 minutes of trichotomy and liquefaction’ if you’re also a fan of Mordecai, VU, Half Japanese, Home Blitz, Tyvek, The Modern Lovers, Electric Eels, The Mirrors (Cleveland), Great Plains, Long Hots etc. It’ll be on my Top of 2025 list for sure! — Nic