Mouth Painter – “Mother Carey’s Chickens”

I have to admit, I’m quite smitten with this new Mouth Painter album. Featuring pedal steel savant Barry Walker Jr., the band pushes far afield from his ambient country offerings, pushing through a verdant strain of folk and country-bitten psych. The latest sees the band sailing atop a propulsive beat, insistent, yet shaggy in its execution. Synths buzz, the guitars seem to come from all directions, and the vocals from Walker and Osterberg push with a side-eye of tension that ultimately melts into the horizon. The record is shaping up to be one to watch, bubbling under quite a few radars, but consider yourself warned, this is one of 2021’s essentials.