Released: 23/6/2008

Never mind about Katie, this is what John did next. After The Libertines disbanded in 2004, while Pete busied himself trying to smoke his own faeces and Carl started flogging Libertines mark two, bassist John Hassell went away to get back to his musical roots: step one was forming Yeti.

Legend has it that Hassall was inspired into music as a youngster after stumbling across a copy of The Beatles Revolver in his parent’s record collection. They claim he claims that if it weren’t for The Beatles, he wouldn’t be playing music today and that their records made him pick up the guitar. If this dainty anecdote is indeed true, then The Legend of Yeti Gonzales is undoubtedly Hassall’s dedication to his first love; this record is so Beatlesy it makes you want to don a walrus mask and run around lampposts and zebra crossings munching on marmalade and LSD sandwiches yelping “Gooood Day Suuunshine!”

Yeti is four men pumping out psychedelic pop chock-a-block with three-part harmonies and county melodies. Sound familiar? If there was any doubt, a simple listen to some of the lyrics will identify the levels of Beatles indulgence on this record: “Obvious-ly, she’s the only one for me,” and “Love is the key and only love can set you free.” It’s worse than we thought doctor.

Albeit that The Beatles are their inspiration, comparisons are inevitable and it is just impossible to compete. No amount of silky melodies or harmony-driven psychedelic pop from Yeti is going to stop us from quickly swirling our thumbs on the old ipod until we get to Magical Mystery Tour. It’s not that The Legend of Yeti Gonzales isn’t good, there are some great numbers like Never Lose Your Sense Of Wonder and Merry Go Round, it’s just that it’s not excellent and given the choice between an excellent slice of psychedelic pie and merely a good slice, I know which my fork will be reaching for. You dig?

www.yetigonzales.com

Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com