(2021) Aquarian Blood - Bending the Golden Hour


Review:
In terms of their approach, Memphis’ Aquarian Blood have shown an impressive commitment to letting their music evolve and take on new shapes. In terms of underlying message, they’ve maintained a tight focus. On their first album, 2017’s Last Nite in Paradise, their electro-shocked punk rock sounded like the product of an acid trip that was something less than good, and even though 2019’s A Love That Leads to War traded the electric assault of the first LP for a moody acoustic approach, it still sounded curiously ominous, like the background score to an evening of expressive bad vibes. The band’s third full-length, 2021’s Bending the Golden Hour, takes the middle-of-the-night whisper of A Love That Leads to War and adds back just a dash of the more expansive attack of the debut, giving the music a richer set of dynamics and sonic texture. Coupled with the (usually) unison vocals of group leaders J.B. Horrell and Laurel Horrell, this gives Bending the Golden Hour the comforting, placid but addled sound of a cult singing around the campfire, calm in the knowledge that peace and salvation is on the horizon once that bloody apocalypse finally happens. The lyrics on Bending the Golden Hour aren’t particularly disturbing in themselves, but the wobbly commitment of J.B. and Laurel’s delivery and the minor-key simplicity of the performances brings the moody undercurrents of the songs into focus, and “Spray Them All,” “Bending Time,” and “Probable Gods” are powerful in their quiet authority and sense of purpose. There’s something honestly beautiful in Bending the Golden Hour, and Aquarian Blood have given us something that’s striking and very special, though you might not want to hear your neighbor playing it several times a day for months on end.





Track Listing:
1.Channeling 03:10
2.Time In The Rain 02:49
3.Bolted And Embossed 02:41
4.Waited 03:12
5.Till It Wasn't Anymore 02:03
6.Spray Them All 02:05
7.Rope And Hair 02:53
8.Bending Time 02:47
9.Come Home 02:50
10.Covering The Past 02:17
11.Hate To Wake You 02:17
12.Alabama Daughter 03:13
13.Night Train 03:35
14.Count My Love 02:59
15.On The Divide 02:39
16.Probable Gods 03:28
17.Boredom Hours 03:04


Media Report:
Genre: folk-rock, lo-fi, psychedelic rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits