Patients - Album Review: Homemade Pills
Homemade Pills is a new album by Patients, one of the projects of Christchurch's Aeneas Jones. As well as fronting heavy rockers PhatSak and performing with Chickenyard and When I Was Sexy, Aeneas drew together the collective Patients to play and record this latest effort. George Brown played guitar on the album and recorded it at his studio Urban Decibel. Jimmy B of Dark Matter Hurricane handled bass duties, and drums were provided by George's bandmate in Mattress, Charlie Mannering.
First up is Good Day. Sweetly mellow guitar jangles bring this one in, soon joined by a tight, full rhythm section, with a nice healthy dose of funk informing the Indie Rock feel. This is a happy, happy song, without being even slightly twee or cheesy. This song just purely tells the tale of a perfect chilled out day that starts out well and keeps getting better. Driving aimlessly, whilst hanging with good company... my kind of day. Featuring a lovely little melodic guitar interlude. I Share kicks off with a nice raw drum sound, this track sounds almost lo-fi until lush waves of guitar and a smoothly rolling bassline join in. Wonderful big chorus, it lifts the song right up, before mellowing down again, however the vocals are just a tad buried in the mix, there. Some more superb bass work from Mr Jimmy B, and boy howdy does Aeneas have a great sense of melody.
There's funk for days, on She's Out There. Wah-ed out guitars, slinky drums, and bass as lowdown and dirty as a Vegas lawyer. Just over two minutes of funky pop-rock goodness, musically remarkably upbeat, for a song that's ultimately about loss of love. A Message has a wicked disco rock feel, I love the full, warm, present production. Aeneas has a great ability to explode these big, beautiful choruses out of a completely different feel. The bouncy, bubbly vibes give way to a chorus of much greater magnitude, a soaring, triumphant sound. I always appreciate and enjoy a Kiwi singer who sings in their natural Kiwi accent. Aeneas has a voice that leaps from soft and pensive to huge and bold with no discernable effort, which aptly suits the differing moods of this song.
There's some great guitar playing on this album, this next track being no exception, and Aeneas shows yet another side to his vocal ability on Karen, an ode to modern-day busybodies, venomously snarling the chorus at the song's namesake. Wake Up is another great blend of funk feel and Indie Rock, with a fat slice of punk thrown in for good measure. A swaggering vocal harmony carries the verse, giving way to vocals equally as angry as the guitars, in the choruses. More growling, aggressive guitars stab into the outro, with a final raucous yell of the chorus fading darkly away.
Lastly, How Do We Get Out starts out straight rock, a solid 4/4 beat with a tasty chord progression. A quick burst into a spacey, washy feel, then the vocals join in at the return of the 4/4 progression. One of Aeneas' typically majestic chorus sections, the layers of guitars deftly applied. This is the album's longest offering by far, at almost 5 minutes, and not a note out of place. A gorgeous end to a gorgeous album.
Aeneas has quite a back catalogue of recordings available on Bandcamp and Spotify. After listening to Homemade Pills, I'll definitely be checking out some more. Come join me, treat yourself I say.
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