Review Summary: The Australian psych-rockers return to continue penning their thesis on life: that its best lived LOUD. Bloody, screaming, with a smile the whole way down.
"Life is a roller coaster: but its your choice whether to scream or enjoy the ride."
Or so they say. In their second outing of 2025, Perth's own Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have delivered an absolute roller coaster in Pogo Rodeo, eager to sear itself into your id - directly through your eardrums. In it, the band explores the above quote not just as a simple idiom but as an auditory thesis on proper living.
And their brand of living is sweat-on-the-brow, blood-in-the-gums LOUD.
Case in point, their lead single: Manny's Ready To Roll. Its title and cover art suggest a cheeky saturday morning cartoon romp - which would be accurate if your morning cereal were laced with amphetamines and paired with such animation as Heavy Metal, Akira, or Takeshi Koike's REDLINE. The decibel count cannot be overstated - and every bite is bloody delicious. But - for the acclaimed psychedelic five piece none of this is news. So what's new here? Well, its about the only subtle thing behind Pogo Rodeo:
The approach.
What sets this apart from prior efforts is the tremendous amount of focus at play, here. The entire track list is an exercise of precisely measured momentum. Each track carefully curates a distortion laden inertia. Such that each pause for air presents an opportunity to re-frame the riffs that preceded them. Paired with dry, pulsing percussion, it brings to mind the visceral sensation of an earthquake - with the moments between serving as geysers bursting through your footing, as the band gleefully knocks you on your ass. Forcing your perspective to shift with animalistic glee.
Up and down, round and round, the roller coaster winds on.
Its in this neck-snapping precision that the album shines with a color that their expansive, lengthier early efforts could not. The tracks here build and chug and wind and tug - but never sprawl or slack. Comprised of the most addictive guitar lines of their career, the band sets aside the impulse to segue them into meandering prog passages - instead tightly winding them around crowd pleasing hooks.
The bridge in the opener - Salsa Verde - teases this, quoting the chorus of 'Come Together' in a raging, bloody rasp. These hooks - again: utter crowd pleasers - are the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets' paying homage to the rock greats. From the twisted two chord chorus of The Real Contra Band, right out of Motley Crue's playbook, to the searing blues snarl of Texas Rangers, which channels Stevie Ray Vaughn from beyond the nether - these tributes are delivered and structured in a way that facilitates Pogo Rodeo's grounded focus and momentum.
Inherent to any thrill ride, however, is contrast. The smooth banked curves and heady hangtime that provide a counter play to the big drops and inversions. You'll find much of this on the tail end of Pogo Rodeo - where Looniversal, Watermelon, and Bowling With Tim shimmer with a dreamy psychedelic head fuzz characteristic of their earlier work. Yet again: tighter. Although the album's act three lacks the transcendent highs of Found God In A Tomato or Van Gogh & Gone (a strike against this particular rodeo) its tight structure and delivery serve as inflection points for the blistering headbanging that preceded them.
Like the contemplative post-coaster head rush - here punctuated by precision strike acoustic guitar work - your synapses finally breathe and buzz back down to earth, replete with serotonin and questions. Questions such as: What the hell did that MEAN? Or: Did you enjoy the ride? And: Can we go again?
Its clear that Psychedelic Porn Crumpets understand thrills - both in their construction and their implication. Namely that life is a rapid-fire series of blistering highs and brutal lows. A roller coaster.
But Pogo Rodeo won't let you hold on: you have no choice but to let go and enjoy the ride.
