Spooky Mansion - "Torture"

In just a couple of years, Spooky Mansion have covered a lot of ground. There was their debut EP, with its surf-tinged wacko rock vibes. Then "Disco Bitch," a pretty groovy single from a short film that the band created and starred in along with Tino Drima. It has won awards. "I'm the Moon" EP was a sharp change of gears - dreamy R&B pop made in collaboration with Rose Droll.

And now they're gearing up to release their debut LP, Alright. Earmilk did a decent job of copy / pasting the press release when they debuted "Torture," but there are a couple additional items of note that I'd like to draw your attention to:

Firstly, because even though the subreddit r/DeepStateBayArea contains a fair amount of posts arguing that Spooky Mansion are government shills, paid to write a song about torture to coincide with the selection of Gina Haspel as CIA Director, with the goal of de-sensitizing the public to the idea of making torture acceptable (again), I just don't buy it. Think about it: these guys probably smoke weed, which government employees aren't allowed to do.

Secondly, it's their best song yet. It establishes itself with a whimsical guitar + whistle riff that contrasts nicely with the Pixies-ish bass line. Vocalist Grayson Converse sounds like he's really mastered his nasal yelp thing. The drums are crisp, skating forward on a fluttering tambourine.

And that's all peaches n cream, but it's the song's final section that's the real Stormy Daniels. After his snarky barky yippie yowls, Admiral Converse morphs into a different character entirely, releasing all of the song's tight-wrought tension in one sublime line. "I want to let it go," he croons, before the band joins in on a perfect Beach Boys harmony. Simply put, it's a salve, and is all the more soothing for being so unexpected.