Trippin' the Whole Colourful World

iTunes Review

The Anglophilic Spanish band The Shake is part of that timeline-blurring contingent of retro rockers who worship at The Beatles' altar. The Shake's 2007 debut, Trippin’ the Whole Colourful World, sounds as authentically 1966 as the sleeve art looks, starting with the heavy go-go groove of “You Said Goodbye,” where electrified Merseybeat is played on what can only be the magical combination of Rickenbacker guitars and Vox amps. Frontman and rhythm guitarist Miguel Angel Calabuig croons like a cross between John Lennon and George Harrison, filtered through a thick Spanish accent. “She’s My Girl” jangles with a Byrdsy 12-string while borrowing heavily from Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone,” but the preceding “Still Haven’t Seen the Man on the Moon” mines outside Liverpool for a sound that’s equal parts Kinks and more obscure English freakbeat. The band tries its hand at more psychedelic-tinged power pop on “She’s in Black” (recalling Plasticland’s 1985 cover of the 1966 Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours hit “Magic Rocking Horse"). The Shake may be trying to re-create the past rather than adding to it, but it's incredibly good at it.