Beachwood Sparks ★★★★
Across The River Of Stars
CURATION. CD/DL/LP
The Californians’ first in a decade brings “hope, nutrition and solace for our troubled times.”
THAT THE SPARKS are still avid Byrders is clear even before they name-check Gene Clark’s Silver Raven on Gentle Samurai, but even if their pool of influences remains undisturbed, they sound passionately aflame here. With Black Crowe Chris Robinson back in the alt-country producer role he first enjoyed with The Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, Across The River Of Stars is a succinct record about wisdom accrued through adversity, its layered arrangements packing subtle psych tropes and world-weary vocal-harmony. “Ashes falling in the yard,” sings Chris Gunst, parsing mother earth’s tattered blueprint on the Neil Young-like Torn In Two, while Faded Glory’s sun-dappled Polaroid portrays time’s wounding arrow.