If you’re going to Brooklyn, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.
The fourth album from American indie rock band, Widowspeak captures their Brooklyn by way of their Tacoma hometown attitude.
Maybe it’s the brownstone buildings or New York City state of mind, but Widowspeak is doing its duty in shifting the psychedelic hotbed from the West Coast to the East Coast with their moody and epic psych rock.
The band is based around the duo of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas on vocals/guitar and guitar, respectively. Hamilton’s swooning Brontë delivery recalls early neo-psychedelic band Mazzy Star’s vocalist, Hope Sandoval. Widowspeak is edgier and more electric than Mazzy Star, but the basic DNA is the same. Hamilton does a singing-from- another-realm style, and takes it to a new dimension, as on Fly on the Wall.
On their fourth album, Widowspeak is hitting a stride of focused writing that allows them to sound laid back, tuned in and anthemic. This relaxed intensity is given a gorgeous treatment on tracks like The Dream, Let Me, and Right On.
The beds of reverb recall Lana Del Ray’s cushiony vibe but the jangling rumble of the songs are like a pared-down Jefferson Airplane turned up to 12 and off the brown acid.
Expect the Best is a direct and dreamy record. It reveals how the raw function of garage rock and surf music experimentalism merge with folk music to morph into psychedelia. You can lose yourself in the mood, and it hints at an altered listening experience without demanding total immersion.
—Dean Gordon-Smith is a Vernon-based musician who reviews the latest music releases in his column, Street Sounds, every Friday.