Nash’s last album, 2013’s Rain Plans, was the result of a change in scenery, the singer-songwriter having swapped New York City bustle for the wide open spaces of the Texan hill country outside Austin.
Dispensing with his conventional roots stylings, the music now described a suitably grand vista that wed scudding psychedelia to the prime years of Laurel Canyon and the kind of folk-leaning acts that made up Island Records’ roster in the 60s.
This follow-up is, if anything, even more exquisite. Backed by a four-piece band that includes Midlake guitarist Joey McClellan, Nash settles into a languid, hallucinatory groove that recalls mid-70s Neil Young and the more recent mystic wanderings of My Morning Jacket.
The warm headwind of LA Lately feels like something from CSNY’s Déjà Vu; the gorgeous Strangers is ringing country-rock with celestial overtones and dreamy steel. Cosmic Americana of the very highest order.
