Unessential Oils album review secret city

Unessential Oils, Unessential Oils: REVIEW

“A deluge of jazzy, tropicalia-styled funk and folk riffs from the frontman for Plants and Animals.”

Unessential Oils, Unessential Oils (Secret City)

Creative sparks can strike whenever they feel like it, and the judge of a good artist can decide whether to act on those impulses. This happened to Warren Spicer, best known as the frontman/one of the guitarists of Plants and Animals, while he was marinating in the bath. A deluge of jazzy, tropicalia-styled funk and folk riffs appeared in his mind, and rather than adapt them for Plants and Animals, he ran with this new sound — creating his new project, Unessential Oils. The album of the same name is a whimsical and fun burn, always feeling quite bright yet hazy, with a diverse cornucopia of instrumentation.  8/10 Trial Track: “Solutions to My Gloom”

“Solutions to My Gloom” from the self-titled album by Unessential Oils

For more on Unessential Oils, please visit his label website. This article was originally published in the June 2024 issue of Cult MTL.


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