I can say with confidence that Pink Mountaintops Outside Love is one of the best releases I’ve heard this year. I’ve long been a fan of Stephen McBean’s Black Mountain outlet, blend equal parts Pink Floyd and black metal. His Pink Mountaintops moniker however is a little more subdued, more late-night zone out session, yet still owing a hat-tip in the Floyd direction.

“The ten songs on Outside Love are about or influenced by weddings in Montreal, winter, Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut, Christmas albums, that one Exile song and that one Echo and the Bunnymen song, the Bermuda Triangle, being depressed in the sunshine, people who haven’t made out yet but will in the future, The Everly Brothers, clowns in the ceilings, and bedrooms where skinheads used to live. They are songs of love and hate that read like a Danielle Steele romance novel but that would probably make for bad television.”

Outside Love arrives May 5th via Jagjaguwar. Catch Pink Mountaintops at the Empty Bottle in Chicago on Wednesday, June 10th.

Previously: Catfish Haven & Pink Mountaintops in Philadelphia

Pre-Order: Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love
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Myspace: Pink Mountaintops
MP3: Pink Mountaintops – “Vampire”