This is definitely one of the least ‘Easy listening’ albums I’ve had this year.
There are so many different tonal influences and aural references to so many artists that you find your head spinning at the sheer audacity of it all. It feels as though someone has trawled through a very good record collection and picked up bits and pieces from everywhere, squishing them into a weird melange of sounds and songs. But – and it is an important but – the quality of the musicianship is outrageous, the writing shows that they know their music intimately. One of the elements I really enjoyed is that the music feels organic and founder Don Zimmer is on record as enjoying the creative process of recording the most, pulling together, going from nothing to something. Quote “Recording Is Bliss”.
For the pigeon-holers out there, it sits in that vast hinterland we call Americana and incorporates just about everything under that banner. There is country, alt-country, Appalachian folk/Blues, treatments and even some Beefheart inspired twisted Blues. But everything comes together and by the time I had listened to it five or six times, I could see the logic in the music and the natural path it all follows.
Genius, one of the best albums I’ve been offered for review this year.
