Hailing from the same US stable as My Morning Jacket, Hayden and Mark Kozelek, Lakis’first solo work since splitting with San Francisco’s Half Film is a weather-trodden waltz between the cracks of backwoods country and indie rock. Aided by local band The Inspectors, there’s more than a passing resemblance to Evan Dando’s slacker croon (the radical reworking of Bad Brains’ “Sailin’ On”), but the tunes owe more to the sun-scorched desertscapes of Calexico, the crumpled allure of Elliott Smith and Red House Painters at their most lugubrious.
Wurlitzers, vibes and Lakis’ winning way with pedal-steel create a melancholy magnetism that is hard to ignore.
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