Yarrows is a rock trio based in Penticton, British Columbia that have released their first full-length album. They identify as psychedelic country, existential dream rock and desert nocturne. I already like them just from that description!
The three members of yarrows all come from other bands. Stephanie Lines (lead vocals/acoustic guitar) is from Great Lonely Wild, Mathieu Drolet (lead guitar/bass) hails from the Karate Kids, and Thomas Hunter (percussion/backing vocals) came from Meet The Future. All their music is written collaboratively with lyrics by Stephanie Lines. The band says that Lines gets compared to Patti Smith. I’m a Smith fan, but Lines may technically be a better singer; the similarity is more in her direct, unadorned delivery. Lead guitarist Drolet cites Red House Painters, Calexico and Kepler as primary influences. Their soundscape comes from their “…experiences growing up in rural areas, the desert landscape of the southern Sylix / Okanagan territories, and the rapidly changing ecologies and technologies of our world.” Lyrically the songs were crafted by Lines during a sweltering summer of personal upheaval and loss. Guitarist Drolet fleshed out Lines’ sketches with final touches added by percussionist Hunter. The album was recorded and mixed in Hunter’s Penticton basement and mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk of Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, Oregon. The opening track “Blindness” establishes the yarrows’ sound: acoustically open, somewhat shimmery in a minor key with un processed lead and harmony vocals. Like early R.E.M., the band gets a lot of mileage out of a single jangly electric guitar, bass, and solid, roomy drums. Watching a live video on their website, to me this song suggested The Byrds performing something like “So You Want To Be A (Depressed) Rock And Roll Star.” “Let Down” opens a bit like a Joe Jackson track, with stabbing guitar breaks and killer drumming. Lines does channel Patti Smith here with a beautifully aggressive lead vocal. “Can we terrorize ourselves / make our own minds / We are the living tide / you ain’t never gonna let us down / we can make the water rise.” I especially love the elliptical chord structure used here. “So” filters Drolet’s guitar through shimmery tremolo and reverb, as he plays more of his bittersweet, suspended minor chords. The song kicks into double time halfway through, to bracing effect. It’s hard to hear some of the lyrics but Lines appears to be saying a bitter goodbye to someone who really should be sticking around. “Shadow Train” adds acoustic guitar to the yarrows mix along with an even more intimate Lines vocal. The song alternates between quiet picking and a more aggressive “train time” rhythm. Lines brings a Gillian Welch drawl to the lyrics: “Oh there ain’t no sense in disagreeing with / these things we’ve gone and done… well, the tracks they keep on going / I ain’t never been so far away from home / they don’t turn the way they should, they don’t respect the mountains for their routes.” There’s more than a hint of Tex Mex danger in their arrangement. “Icarus” locks into a laid-back rock groove with more of those yarrows stop-start rhythms. Nice lyrical device on the legend of Icarus: “I’m driving, still holding on / the wheels don’t get much further from the ground / into the sunrise / if we could go just a little bit faster / if we could reach just a little bit further / if we could try just a little bit harder / if we could fly just a little bit higher.. and touch our souls.” “Into The Night” establishes a ghostly mood with a guitar that suggests distant car horns on a black night, peeking in and out as a stark counterpoint to Lines’ vocal. On this track especially, one gets a sense of the intimacy of the band’s live performance sound. “Another Day” features a hooky guitar lick for a medium-tempo rocker in which Lines stretches her falsetto muscles. “Go To Sleep” ends the album with a busy drum kit rhythm and picked, natural sounding acoustic and electric guitar. Lines chooses to hold back on her singing a bit here, but this song is yet another wonderful iteration of the yarrows’ sound. Overall, Stardust Motor Inn is a highly consistent and enjoyable collection of songs by these clearly talented players.
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