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Frank & The Hurricanes: Love Ya Love Ya Review

(Feeding Tube and Sophomore Lounge Records) Communion with nature—that active relationship and deep appreciation for the inherent sacredness and wonder of water and land—is what seems to ground Love Ya Love Ya, a spiritual blues and psych-folk trip through physical and mental landscapes. Joined by bassist and keyboardist Jake Merck (Realistic Pillow) and drummer John Spiegel (Immaterial Possession), songwriter and storyteller Frank Hurricane is disarmingly friendly from the get-go, welcoming listeners to slow their roll through the laid-back opening track “Creekside Cooler.” The tender-hearted song “Ruth Street” temporarily roots the album in Athens before “Spivey Gap” and “Devil’s Looking Glass”—two songs that reference specific destinations along the Appalachian Trail—pick up the journey across mountains and rivers where 2019’s Life is Spiritual left off. While lyrical mentions of cocktail mixers from Walmart and a “hainted” Taco Bell may feel out of place against predominantly natural imagery, this humor and realism make Hurricane’s personality and experience all the more relatable. Closing tracks “Dreamed About You” and “All Your Love” reflect on the album’s overarching theme from the interpersonal to universal levels, but the most endearing track has got to be “Luna Belle,” a homage to a “wild puss sent straight from hell, mellowed out in her older age.” Equally psychedelic to the music is the album’s cover art by Turner Williams Jr., an illustrated collage of interlocking lyrical references.

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