Lift To Experience, The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads (Bella Union) 9
Lift to Experience, with their ten gallon hats, beards, cowboy shirts and a Denton, Texas home base, look like they would be some sort of alt-country band. That they took their name from a Yoko Ono installation is the first clue that this band is a different sort of bird. A very strange one, at that. With expressionist-feedback My Bloody Valentine guitars and Josh Pearson's Jeff Buckley-inspired vocals, they resemble the British Coldplay more than any American band. Indeed, former Cocteau Twins Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde pitched in mixing assistance, adding an ethereal sheen to the band's concept album -- apocalyptic tales of holy wars and apocalyptic prophecies. The sprawling double CD features lengthy songs averaging about 7 minutes, telling the story "of three Texas boys mindin' their bidness when The Angel Of The Lord appeared unto them . . . " "Down Came The Angels" is quiet, incandescent beauty, while "Falling From Cloud 9," lights up a nuclear blast and exults. Things get utterly disturbing with the darkly prophetic hellfire of "These Are the Days." By "Into the Storm," the ten-minute album closer, you're ready to take cover in a bomb shelter or go hide in French Polynesia, as Pearson proclaims, "When America falls, the world will fall with her." There is much dark beauty to be found in the textures, but the songs could have been more memorable if the band had a more experienced grasp of melody and structure. Overall, a harrowing experience.
