Happy Nightmare Baby cover

Happy Nightmare Baby

Released

Opal’s one full-length album from 1987 was a dark, beautiful masterpiece of psych rock from the start, thanks to “Rocket Machine”’s compelling T. Rex-tinged guitar chug from David Roback and Kendra Smith’s cool, murmuring singing helping set the stage just so. From there it’s a nine-song trip through a realm where Manson’s family never upset the LA scene and maybe goth never needed inventing either, as songs like “Magick Power,” “She’s A Diamond” and “Siamese Trap” create miniature worlds of incense, oil projections and seriously heavy trips.

Ned Raggett

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