When I first reviewed DEAD MEADOW's last CD "Shivering King and Others", I came up with one of my favorite phrases to describe them, "lurching fuzz". Now, their latest release is on my player, and while I'll agree that their sound still lurches and is certainly quite fuzzy, there appears to be a shroud of elegance draped smartly over the entire affair this time.

If you're unfamiliar with the music of DC's DEAD MEADOW, imagine something tragic and droning, both exceedingly anglo and smartly ethereal. The production is a modern take on your favorite 60s elevator shaft. Reverb everywhere and everything including the water cooler is hooked to a wah of some kind. Stephen McCarty's drum sound is a lull of heavy snare and high hat for most of the album's duration (think HENDRIX's "Up From The Skies" and you've got the idea). Vocally, its a Seconal festival floating like ripples in a pool of sitar-scented guitar melodies. They remind me of that obscure 70s psych band KROKODIL a little, if you're familiar with such tuneage.

Some of the more memorable passages that struck me as I focused on this well-orchestrated spinning pinwheel included the excellent "At Her Open Door" and "Stacy's Song". The former hooked me immediately with a haunting BIG STAR watery echo edginess and dreamy, elegant lyrics like "Gifts of gold lie undisturbed at her open door / give until nothing's left, then wish to give more". "Stacy's Song" lifts you off your feet and carries you along green-tinted corridors on wisps of classic BYRDS melodies and melancholy lap steel vibrations. It's curious that the main tracks that drew me in were both departures from McCarty's standard drum patterns, but why overanalyze? The chorussy, dramatic build of the solos in "Let It All Pass" are almost as captivating as the simple lyrical sentiments the song also carries.

Overall, "Feathers" is a high watermark for DEAD MEADOW. A colorful, echoey trip, like paddling an old Vox amp head down a creek of heavy cough syrup.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.deadmeadow.com

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Get Up Get Down

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