On his November 2020 release The Echoist, Andrew Adkins unleashes a fun, psychedelic-rock vibe on “Thunder Perfect Mind,” a very cool, raucous sound that could be a tribute to Jefferson Airplane or their late-1960s peers. The acoustic-guitar driven but heavily synthesized and electrified tune has a bubbly jangle, with booming bass and clanging tambourine, easygoing and groovy but still trippy and danceable.
Middle Tennessee artist Adkins—who formerly performed with the rock groups Mellow Down Easy and Lions for Real, now polishing his solo sound—compiles an interesting blend of Americana, grunge, vintage psychedelic rock, a dash of country and even a little bit of dance and pop styles on this release.
The Echoist can shift gears pretty dramatically, switching between exaggeratedly distorted effects to very natural and acoustic tones at different points. It has an overlying vintage quality about it, but with a generous drenching of 1990s hard rock fuzziness that can at times come across as a little much for Adkins’ otherwise laid-back, folk-rock-like music.
Some of the tracks may not exactly command attention at first listen, but the songwriter has a way of getting bits and pieces, subtleties, phrases and moments of his compositions to work their way into the head of the listener as he goes about his speaking in echoes, speaking in tongues.
Probably the most noticeable element of the album opener, “Mostly Ouroboros,” is the heavily effected vocals, like something Stone Temple Pilots might do, running the vocals through a megaphone as a mid-tempo buzzsaw of a guitar leads off the record. This one, with its dash of grunge flavor, contains a pleasing rock instrumental featuring some wild guitar work.
“Ruination Suite,” on the other hand, has a natural, almost spoken-word vocal quality to it, in a relaxed, Dylanesque storytelling style.
Some slightly zany but still musically adventurous and creative instrumentation—potentially inspired by Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles— can be detected in the back of the mix on “Bitter Pills,” while the whine of a steel slide later lends a country flavor to Adkins’ “Hazel Barricade Eyes.”
While the disc’s offerings may at times rely a bit more on fuzz and gadgetry than on strong hooks and memorable songwriting, Adkins creates an overall groovy and listenable collection of tunes in a unique style. Loaded with reverberations from rock’s recent as well as distant past, The Echoist sends Adkins’ interesting array of influences skittering into the present.
Find The Echoist by Andrew Adkins on Spotify, Apple Music and other platforms; for more information, visit andrewadkins.net.
