Album: Dolorean

Violence in the Snowy Fields, YEP ROC

Dolorean's second album in under a year offers a gentle dose of winsome country-rock harmonies, akin to such long-forgotten Seventies hippie cowpokes as Pure Prairie League. The genial, anthemic tone is set by the opener, "The Search", in which the songwriter Alex James wonders: "Where is the place of understanding/ And where can wisdom be found?", ultimately concluding that it can be found not, as one might think, in libraries, but "in the fear of the Lord, and [in] understanding those who depart from evil". The religiose tone resurfaces in tracks such as "Put You to Sleep", in which a lover's nightmares are soothed by the Holy Ghost, and "The Righteous Shall Destroy the Precious", which is not nearly as interesting as the title suggests. In both cases, I'm reminded of the Mormon indie trio Low, in the way a quiet spirit gradually assumes a more forbidding aspect. The band lives up to its name on the dolorous "Holding On" and "My Grey Life", while "Violence in the Snowy Fields" features a lyric which

Dolorean's second album in under a year offers a gentle dose of winsome country-rock harmonies, akin to such long-forgotten Seventies hippie cowpokes as Pure Prairie League. The genial, anthemic tone is set by the opener, "The Search", in which the songwriter Alex James wonders: "Where is the place of understanding/ And where can wisdom be found?", ultimately concluding that it can be found not, as one might think, in libraries, but "in the fear of the Lord, and [in] understanding those who depart from evil". The religiose tone resurfaces in tracks such as "Put You to Sleep", in which a lover's nightmares are soothed by the Holy Ghost, and "The Righteous Shall Destroy the Precious", which is not nearly as interesting as the title suggests. In both cases, I'm reminded of the Mormon indie trio Low, in the way a quiet spirit gradually assumes a more forbidding aspect. The band lives up to its name on the dolorous "Holding On" and "My Grey Life", while "Violence in the Snowy Fields" features a lyric which muses upon the Revelation of St John. It's one of several songs which pivot uneasily on the cusp of love and death, most strikingly so in "Dying in Time", where James expresses his desire not to outlive his partner. "It seemed too dark a thought to have," he admits, "but then, the darkness never bothered me."