The Dreaming Spires
Album: Searching For The Supertruth
Label: Clubhouse
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.thedreamingspires.co.uk

Formed by Oxford's Robin and Joe Bennett out of the ashes of Goldrush, their debut album, Brothers In Brooklyn, was one of the best Americana albums of 2012. Hell, it was one of the best albums of 2012, period. I have no hesitation in saying this is one of the best for 2015.

Featuring contributions from Jackie Oates, St Etienne's Sarah Cracknell, Geoff Widdowson from Danny and the Champions of the World on sax and Tony Poole of the legendary Starry Eyed and Laughing (themselves practitioners of jangling 60s American folk-rock) and taking its title from cosmic evolution theorist Rich Blundell, it again soars the same skies as such clear influences as Big Star, The Byrds and Gram Parsons while also hinting at the Kinks, but, this time, the sound has expanded to enfold West Coast psychedelia into its cosmic country embrace.

Such flourishes are evident from the cascading opening track, Still Believe In You, a golden tumbling melody that immediately transports you to the Fifth Dimension realms of The Byrds

Things get pared back on the equally shimmering acoustic All Kinds of People before the defiant title cut comes along as, with what sounds like banjo although there's none credited, Rob sings "I won't look back in anger, I won't look back in shame, I'd do it all again", Rob sounding uncannily like classic McGuinn.

Strange Glue takes a rhythmic shift to choppy percussive beats with a staccato like delivery against gospel piano and guitar swirls as the song unfolds a lyric about home and the collective consciousness that bonds us together, and then it's the turn of the pedal steel shaded Easy Rider, the title again evoking the late 60s and Byrdsian associations although its country-rock melody more suggests the Eagles' Desperado while the lyris namecheck Graham Nash's Military Madness, Bee Gees classic Massachusetts and I Am The Cosmos, the solitary solo album by Big Star's Chris Bell.

A particular obsession of Rob Bennett surfaces with the glorious Springsteenesque anthem Dusty In Memphis (he has a side project named Dusty Sound System), its soaring treble tribute paying tribute to the classic album and the very soul of music it embodied over a wash of fuzzy guitars.

The regret-stained We Used To Have Parties takes the tempo back down to a slow waltz, a hushed, reflective country ache with keening lap steel and Cracknell on harmonies only for If I Didn't Know You to wake you from the reverie with its ringing guitars and military drum patterns. The final two numbers are co penned by Rob and Nick Holton from Black Hearted Brother, who plays organ on both, seeing the album out on a departure from the dominant musical sound, When The Magic Comes offering two minutes of funky soul, the curtain coming down with the falsetto-sung seven-and-a-half love song, So Pretty, conjuring blessed out Neil Young on a jazzy, chilled vibe of percussion and piano, the final stretch turning the spotlight on Oates' violin. They may come from the wrong university city, but The Dreaming Spires are the Stephen Hawking of contemporary cosmic country.

Mike Davies