Illuminated by the Light:Weird War

Label: Drag City

Genre: Retro funk-rock

Rating: 7.3/10

Weird War's third album is a long-overdue time to psychoanalyze lead singer and infamous "scene-creamer" Ian Svenonius with Freud in mind; unfortunately, trying to do so results in massive confusion, because Svenonius (interestingly, the most normal looking and least "scene" guy in the band) appears to have a fixation with three out of five of Freud's psychosexual stages: Orally, he slurs and makes sure his stoned vox sounds as seductive as the slut he is... His anal-expulsive personality reveals a careless defiance on "Mental Poisoning" (where he mentions psychology... And, er, biology)... And there's definitely some of that fifth genital stage in there with the interest in relationships throughout the album. Unsurprisingly missing are the "intimacy anxiety" one experiences during the third phallic stage and the fourth latency stage. No sir, none of that latency here: Michelle Mae, Alex Minoff, and Sebastian Thomson back up Svenonius' strut and the result is Weird War's most consistent and worthwhile effort. Still, it will take some more work to reach the heights The Make-Up once swaggered through. Weird War don't appear to care though, being too blazed to even notice. Dude. Killer.