The People's Temple introduced themselves to a wider audience on 2010's Sons of Stone as disciples of 1960s earworm psych with a bent on mysticism. On More for the Masses, they're still psychedelic, but they're also poised to bust out a new set of tricks. For starters, they explore the faction of Nuggets that found inspiration in Chess records. ("Primitive" by the Groupies? A thinly veiled rework of "Smokestack Lightning".) Their track "Texas Revisited" is a harmonica-addled blues tune ripped right from the Rolling Stones' "what would Howlin' Wolf do" playbook. Plus, it feels like they've managed to get a bit funkier, especially with the groove and supplemental wah-wah in the title track. As good as the Lansing band are at crafting garage songs in the vein of the Seeds, their newfound variety is a welcome change-up.
But while the band's flirtation with blues riffs and harmonica feel like an intuitive next step, they make a completely unexpected move around the middle of the record. Previously, their jams have been bright-sounding psych affairs-- see their triumphant hook from "Sons of Stone"-- but with "Restless", they start messing with shoegaze. Their guitars lose their bite from "Looter's Game" and become outright dreamy. Everything slows down, their textures becomes hazier, and there's generally a lot more background atmosphere. The new sound is something of a hurdle at first; it's not a look we've come to associate with the People's Temple, and it completely changes the pace, build, and overall aesthetic of the first six tracks. But the songs are well crafted and well executed. Apparently "shoegaze jam" and "psych jam" can coexist fairly peacefully. And thankfully, their efforts aren't monotonous. "Loose (Fire)", the track immediately following "Restless", starts out sounding like it could head in that same ethereal direction, but their guitars get more assertive and their vocals get loud as the track goes on.
Even though they're slinging more spacy material, there's still a strong presence from the stuff they do best. "Nevermore" is a bittersweet love story (more accurately: lust story) that highlights the band's penchant for big, echoing, and moody guitar solos. "Blinding City" is bookended by fast-paced guitars and vocal harmonies, but the real highlight is the chunk in the middle. They dip into a minor key and slow down with a lethargic funk guitar solo while somebody screams "WAHHHH." Meanwhile, "Looter's Game" doesn't spend any time on solos or filler-- it's two straight minutes of tight, all-substance garage songwriting, and it'd fit in tidily on a Seeds or Nuggets comp.
Unfortunately, the second half of the album slows down and never really picks back up. After "Loose (Fire)", it's all mid-tempo jams and even spacier material. Even though they do some great stuff with that last 17 minutes, it's sort of a trudge to get through it all. "The River (Donovan's Song)", for example, has interesting moments, but the track's full three minutes become repetitive. Even shorter tracks, like "Fortune Teller", add nothing but a decent chord progression and an empty 1960s garage caricature. It's understandable if they want to establish a more mellow flow to take them to album closer "(Dark Dreams) Distant Memories", which finishes things with a bright Eastern-accented chord progression. But a banger in the middle of that final clump, something like "Looter's Game" or Sons of Stone's "Starstreamer", might make it easier to see the LP through to the end.
