‘Harmony soaked love songs’, I get – but what’s this? ‘Pre-Psychedelic? What the hell does that mean? Is that ‘Pre-Psychedelic’ in the sense of how you feel just before you get high? Or ‘Pre-Psychedelic’ in the sense of anything between Lewis Carroll, Salvidor Dali and See Emily Play? Hmm. Not sure about that. ‘Hallucinogenic’ maybe, in the same way ‘Exaltation Of Larks’ and tracks like ‘Tall Flowers’ in particular, scratch the tenderest sketches of altered consciousness with their wistful streams of thought and fragile, collapsing metaphors: “All the space so inbewteen/Shivers My trees/Altering the breeze”. Yes it’s all in there. Bowing flowers, petals lost in the clouds, sinners, freaks, rosebuds, hushed applause and circus clowns – all suspended in a gravity-less inner space beset by showers of banjos, melotrons, strings and violins and the gentlest of percussive elements. Of course, one could put this spaced-out combat angel’s altered state of mind down to her recent collaborations with 3rd Earl Of Rochester and Wastrel in Waiting, Pete Doherty (the two collaborated on Doherty’s ‘I Wanna Break Your Heart’/’Sheepskin Tearaway’) – but one might also tip a wink in the direction of placid slacker deliriums like Beck’s ‘Sea-Change’ album or practically anything by Nick Drake and Serge Gainsbourg. Not that it’s a copy by any means, as cheerily busy New York musician, composer, performer, director, producer Mark Kramer (Galaxie 500, Low, Daniel Johnston, Ween) provides the kind of imagination and sensitivity to Allison’s own dilatory routes and itineraries that it avoids the usual pitfalls and de rigueur of self-consciously folky affairs, standing ultimately somewhere between Beth Orton, Smog, Dory Previn, Lamb and heathery celtic folktopians like Monica Queen and Karen Matheson; soft, iridescent and bristling with gaelic energy (‘Thief Of Me’, ‘In Deep Water’, and the gossamer-wrapped acid-tab, ‘Longitude And Latitude Of Mystery’ – especially so).
Yes it’s a long way from the club-oriented, pop-dance crossover material she tendered with previous band ‘One Dove’ in early 90s and the electro and house vibe of 2002’s ‘We Are Science’ – but it’s by no means an abrupt discontinuation. Cosmic cowgirl music, psyche-celtic music – call it what you will – it’s the sound of a dissolving rainbow, the collapse of heather underfoot and the work of an artist at the top of their game. Beautiful.
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