BUY THE CD HERE
BUY THE VINYL HERE
Since their often-overlooked 2009 psychedelic pop hallmark The Satanic Satanist (and its even better half and all-acoustic counterpart The Majestic Majesty), Portland-via-Wasilla, Alaska, outfit Portugal. The Man have seemingly been caught in a bit of a whirl, unsure of whether to pursue their verse/chorus/verse tendencies in Satanic’s vein or go for a more extended, experimental take on their sound, while nearly completely ignoring the sprawling awesomeness of their stellar, jam-prone live sets on record.
In the Mountain, In the Cloud, their first full-length with Atlantic Records, sees Portugal. The Man reprise the sort of vaguely insurrectionist hippie jams they’ve cranked out over the years on such memorable tracks as “The Woods” and “60 Years”. Rather than retread the same ground, though, the band kick right into “Got It All”, which opens on a lick as tasty as any they’ve cut throughout their career, John Gourley howling about “the revolution” with brazen relish. While there are points here where tracks overstay their welcome, such as the plodding midsection of “Everything You See” or the spacey “You Carried Us”, the highlights here are slabs of psychedelic rock gold, capturing the band at their best. – Consequence of Sound