Beachwood Sparks expands from space-cowboy feel

Beachwood Sparks' first album was a brilliant throwback to the days when country-psychedelic fusion was as startlingly new as color television once was. But the album was not a total revisitation; what made it so breathtaking at times was the use of new psychedelic sounds created earlier in the previous decade by the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Paul Oakenfold with the Happy Mondays. This is the same type of sound that Radiohead currently uses to make people call an album of bad songs and underdeveloped melodies a masterpiece. \nOn the band's second album, Once We Were Trees, Beachwood Sparks shows expansion from the ideas on the first release. The space-cowboy approach played to the hilt on the first album is still here. It's just that now that cowboy seems to have awoken from his mescaline trip in the desert and realized there are a lot of other people around him. \nBeachwood Sparks uses psychedelic textures to propel capital material, using this method to create an air of open space. That feeling is needed when turning in a tone poem about the "lonesome crowded west."\nOnce We Were Trees works like a song cycle, each song seems to breeze effortlessly into the next, creating a captivating unison. At the very beginning of the album the musicians announce their change, quickly going from their familiar aimless drone into singer Chris Gunst announcing, "confusion is nothing new." This is followed by a nervous rave sent sailing by a pump organ, chiming guitars and Beach Boy-type harmonies. \nThe stand out song "By Your Side" was originally done by Sade. Here, it is given a country overhaul and comes out sounding surprisingly sincere. \nThroughout Once We Were Trees, Beachwood Sparks searches for the way to deal with the big city and how everything else will fit in around it. From the sound of it the band members aren't dealing with it all that well, but the breakdown is a complete joy to listen to. Beachwood Sparks is well on its way to becoming the most consistently exciting band around.\nRating: 10