Daniel Romano has outdone himself. And that’s no small feat. After all, anyone who’s been paying even the slightest attention could not be unimpressed with the Ontario roots-rocker’s recent flurry of activity. While the rest of us shuffle around the house procrastinating and sit around overeating, Romano has been getting shit done. Or at least getting shit released. In the past couple of months, he’s dropped four new titles onto an unsuspecting but grateful world. Let us recap: There’s the live album Okay Wow. The studio albums Visions of a Higher Dream and Content to Point The Way.The Super Pollen EP featuring members of Fucked Up). Hell, last week he even put out a collection of verse titled At Last There Is No End (The Love Poems of Daniel Romano). But just when you thought he couldn’t get any weirder, he has. Romano’s latest release, which arrived overnight, is titled Forever Love’s Fool. And it’s a real trip. Apparently recorded with Tool drummer Danny Carey, it’s a sprawling, shape-shifting 22-minute progadelic opus straight from the electric Kool-Aid acid test ’60s. Opening on a soft sunrise of glimmering tones and gently strummed notes, it gradually builds and evolves into an epic journey through an ever-changing landscape of psychedelia, rock, country, folk, reggae and more. Guitars jangle and crunch. Keyboards percolate and swirl. Bass lines burble and pulse. Horns swoon. Indian sitars and percussion emerge and retreat. Carey’s crisp, busy drums drive and accentuate the changes. And of course, Romano’s unmistakable nasal vocals bounce between channels as he opines on the follies of romance. It offers echoes of everyone from The Beatles, Love and The Grateful Dead to The Kinks and Yes, but ultimately exists in its own space, time and dimension. It’s all but guaranteed to seduce your ears, melt your mind, unlock your chakras and open your third eye. It’s surely the wildest track you’ll hear today. And it should definitely hold your attention until Romano releases his next unexpected, unpredictable, unclassifiable, undeniable treat in a few days.
