The Speakers - "The Weaver". Finally a proper new album by the Speakers, who are from Philadelphia and Portland, who nine years ago released the magnificent record Yeats is Greats, whose rain- and sun-lashed folk music is the consummation of its genre. The Speakers evoke Sam Amidon and Espers, Mojave 3 and Radiohead, Simon & Garfunkel and Nicolas Jaar. Their music is gentle and persistent, deliberate as an ivy; horns, soft voices and banjo with a girding of reverb, drone and lap steel. For me it conjures a living city, a tree on the edge of flower, or maybe a thundercloud simply thrumming. Although there are some (very) rare moments of treacliness, most of The Saddest Quo is just abstruse enough, just clouded enough, that you can let it rest upon your heart. It fills up a room, sends streaks across the evening, lingers like a smoke.

Anyway, it's beautiful. "The Weaver" is a duet in amber, locked away. Things stir around the voices - feedback, guitar, the sharp looks of the lap steel. Simultaneously a heartbreak and a seeking, a wander and a wonder. This song is a wax seal not yet set.

[buy - highly recommended]

(photo by Michael Lundgren)