Sacred Bones Records releases an album by the fictional character Jeremiah Sand, the fictional cult leader and main antagonist in the Nicolas Cage fronted movie Mandy (2018). Lift It Down is an awful psych-folk record that deliberately takes itself far too seriously...

If you haven't seen the movie, Mandy, or have no idea who the fictional Jeremiah Sand is... then this album will go soaring over your head. Those who are familiar with either/both will find this a delightful slice of fun.

A few years prior to assembling his flock, The Children Of The New Dawn in 1974, Sand had self produced and released an album of psych-folk that was unremarkable in almost every way, save for the unrelenting vanity and egoism on display in the lyrics. This early album is one of the only existing documents of Sand. The commercial failure of the album became the catalyst for Sand to leave Southern California and settle in a place where his "truth" would be "received by pure and open hearts".

So here we finally have, that "masterpiece" and boy is it self indulgent crap - exactly as you'd expect. It's a hoot from start to finish and really helps to flesh out the character's backstory a little more.

There's little point in delving into this seriously, as it's delightfully tongue in cheek - played straight, as you'd expect from a comedy record that is lampooning something that could so easily exist. Yes, this is just the sort of self indulgent '70s hippy crap you can imagine being an actual album.

The LP consists of 8 wonderfully awful tracks (36 min, 35 sec) and is well worth picking up. The lyrics are terrible, but are good enough to just stop everything descending into farce. 'Love Is' almost gives the game away that this isn't a real hippy album from the '70s.

A delicious slice of silliness.

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Nick Smithson