Chris Stamey’s “Make Up Your Mind” betrays a deep-seated passion for the fizzy elation of mid-’60s Beatles, with just a twinge of Beach Boys-esque reverie. And then, this being the ever-clever Stamey (a pop classicist whose best work is never over-reverential), “Make Up Your Mind” pulls hard right into a brilliantly serrated guitar solo.
There’s much to pull out of this gem, which only seems to grower richer as an experience with each successive spin. That solo space, for instance, also blends punchy Memphis-inspired horns, which then return to add a whoosh of emotion at the end.
By the time it’s over, you’ve made up your mind, alright. “Make Up Your Mind,” another terrific advance moment from the forthcoming Euphoria, is one of the best singles of Chris Stamey’s rich and varied career.
Maybe it’s because he reconnected to his earliest successes, working again with old pal Mitch Easter on this project. Maybe because Euphoria — due June 2, 2015 via Yep Roc Records — sprung from songwriting sessions played on the same Silvertone guitar that he’d used for his very first records.
Or maybe there was something in the air at Easter’s Fidelitorium. Turns out, during the sessions for Euphoria, Chris Stamey says his daughter was playing a lot of the Beatles’ similarly complex 1966 triumph Revolver. But Stamey draws out still more connections, all of them like little bursts of sun-filled revelation: A riff he compares to the Cramps, a conversational style in the verse that recalls “Spooky” by the Classics IV.
Keep listening. You’ll hear more.
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