Califone - Roots and Crowns Album Review

Califone
Roots and Crowns
Album Review

Into a space that Beck and Wilco have made their own storm Califone - a roots rock pop space full of rhythm, atmosphere and hypnotic melody. Roots and Crowns has a wonderfully trippy feel, like the best of Beck's more mature work, Akron/ Family's Meek Warrior, or Sparklehorse in lighter moments. Sunday Noises is as lovely a song as you'll hear all year, sandwiched by songs that are like left-handed takes on Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well - Spider's House and The Eye You Lost in the Crusades.

Califone have bubbled under for more than 10 years now, and it is has always been hard to understand why - Roots and Crowns knocks spots off anything Wilco have done in five years: it is engaging, dramatic, coherent and cohesive. Never likely to grace a supermarket shelf. Which may well be its best recommendation.

Rating 9/10

Mike Rea