The Travelling Band's second album is a bit of a departure from the mostly laid-back alt. country sounds of their excellent first outing "Under The Pavement".
The superb songwriting skills and musicianship of the band are still very much to the fore, but this selection of tracks should also appeal to a wider audience, including listeners who are more orientated towards rock and 'Indie' outfits.
While still retaining a flavour of their country rock origins, the ensemble have this time infused a more upbeat, bouncy approach to the songs. The result is not bland pop, but music which has emotional depth within the rich multi-instrumental sound created over several months (years?) of recording and mixing.The songs however, still sound fresh and immediate.Everyone will choose their own favourites from a very fine selection of mostly self-penned numbers.
The vocals and harmonisation are again top-notch, as is the clarity and quality of the overall production. This very talented group of musicians certainly deserve the critical acclaim, and hopefully commercial success, enjoyed recently by bands such as Mumford & Sons, and Noah & The Whale. But I wouldn't want to pigeon-hole them in a genre with other bands - they have their own identity.
The only thing to add is that hopefully it will not take the lads another two and a half years to get their next album released!