Elope
9 Distilled Dreams
Gravitation
Billed as a companion come-down piece to this year’s earlier ’70s rock inspired release 3WD, 9 Distilled Dreams wafts in like a denouement for ’60s folk. Replacing the Badfinger-esque strut with a softer, breezier psychedelica is a wise choice especially on tracks like “Dream Police” which evokes the breaking summer dawn of a road trip in its elliptical acoustic guitar melody and tender rhythm section. The trio trade vocal duties throughout the 9 tracks, but the songs aren’t assigned to any one singer. The group’s buttery harmonies instantly recall Crosby, Stills and Nash when all three are working in unison, but, funny enough, when left solo one of these guys channels Neil Young’s high timbre better than a legion of imitators. “Not Even Close (Closer),” the album’s final song, is the flickering, lonesome dusk where summer revelry eventually leads. The song’s invocation to “meander this, meander that” sums up this not only this band’s circuitous genre wandering, but also the unhurried gait with which they reminisce through some of the best the ’60s had to offer.
Gravitation Records: http://www.gravitation.nu
