Beachwood Sparks

Like their first album, Once We Were Trees sports out-of-tune vocal harmonies and singers who sound like they've got hay fever. Conceptually and musically, however, Beachwood Sparks have come a long way from the canyon twee of their debut. The band's at its best when diving into space rock jams and repeating vocal phrases over hippie-cum-indie-rock noodling.

The pedal steel, layered harmonies and atmospheric keyboards of Beachwood Sparks'
debut found a comfortable spot between the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and the Flying
Burrito Brothers at the record shop last year. On their new album, Once We Were Trees,
the Los Angeles psychedelic alt-country band picks up where it left off. "Germination"
begins in the middle of the same lovely desert mescaline trip, but then things get... More >