On May 1st this I wrote about the single “Honey Bee“( https://www.fadeawayradiate.com/2020/05/lisa-mychols-super-8-honey-bee/) from the critically praised Lisa Mychols & SUPER 8 album that was subsequently released on July 22nd. To repeat: Lisa Mychols, aka “The Queen of Power Pop” from California, and UK-based pop maverick and multi-instrumentalist Paul Ryan have joined forces made a kaleidoscopic album that is a hotchpotch of songs that houses all of their musical influences and talents. Out of this wonderful album, one song in particular stood out to me, which is also the last song on the album, and I think I’m not alone in that view. Today I can finally share “Arms Of Water” with you: a must for all fans of The Beatles‘ more psychedelic phase. The track has an eerie aquatic theme and is full of delightful retro keyboards, brass, backwards-trippy-sound-effects and layers of enchanting harmonies. Also some creepy kids chanting an old nursery rhyme. Could it get any better?
Paul and Lisa elaborate on the making of “Arms Of Water“:
Paul: “Perhaps just knowing it was going to be the album finale, we got to let our hair down & to allow our whacky & experimental flag to fly. We just let the song totally dictate where it wanted to go – it just became a big musical melting pot of ideas this one! I remember Lisa saying: “Hey! I’m going to try to emulate a fog horn with my voice in parts” to which I’d reply: “OK, I throw in some seagull sounds then … and play them backwards!” (George Martin-inspired studio production) The whole thing became one big sonic canvas of sound that we just kept adding to. I’d have to say this one’s my personal fave. I dunno, there’s just an underlying suspense to this track that I struggle to describe, a strange lyrical/musical code that I can’t quite decipher.”
Lisa: “So Trip (Paul’s nickname) comes to me and says something about an“experimental song”. He sent me backwards stuff and I think I started to either hallucinate or ….. something. I was getting all these, like, really strong visuals. Anyway, I think because I heard fog horns… I wanted to create vocals that would sound like fog horns. “
The fog horns work like a charm! I was seriously wondering what she did to make those harmonies sound like that. The end of the video made me laugh out loud! Listen and watch for yourselves, and don’t forget to check out the rest of the album below:
