Angel Air 2015
Still Twenty-Five In Your Head
Youthful tapping into the old-timey wisdom from ex-KURSAAL men living their American dream.
“I don’t worry, cause worry kills,” goes the exquisite “Smooth Running,” and this line perfectly summarizes the laid-back whiff of this album. Following up on 2013’s "Lost In The Badlands", former FLYERS’ second effort sees a definite article attached to their name, but the group’s vision seems a little blurred now due to a heat haze, while their English humor remains intact just like the players’ inner age as reflected by the cover image. So Paul Shuttleworth’s voice might be parchment-dry in the rockabilly of “Rose Tattoo” yet there’s a wet dream in action which is going on until the title track turns the adventure into a philosophical ride into the sunset.
On the way there, the quintet get down to “Plains Of Mexico,” where Vic Collins shakes the dust with his mariachi strum-and-lace before Steve Oliver takes the strings to the bluegrass pastures of “Uncle Billy” via a strange tempo bump and a Roanoke reference at the start of it. The ensemble aren’t lost like that colony, though, and are led by pedal steel. It shimmers throughout and shoots through the twang and piano of “Late Great Golden State” and the mellifluous cover of Merle Haggard’s “White Line Fever,” whereas “Where Did It Go Wrong” has its bitterness sweetened with a funk riff underneath the melodic flow. So yes, despite some signs of fatigue, the hopes of yore still feed the veteran’s horses.
***
