★★★★☆
Four Stars
One thing that is starkly clear from the opening janglyriff on ‘Things Will Change’ is that this is a band that have bided their time. Named after a Stephen Stills song, the influence of West-coast rockers such as the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is highly evident. These influences become transatlantic with a languid groove in ‘Waiting on You’, which would sit comfortably in any Green-era Fleetwood Mac output, and the voice of Morrison morphing into Rod Stewart and the Faces circa 1975.
The band also moved to LA to record The Mountain Moves and, with their only direct connection across the pond coming from drummer Tomer Danan, it’s hard to imagine that the band hail from London at all. This is reinforced by the Americana groove of tracks such as ‘Haunted House’ and ‘Picture Show’. The latter in particular evokes images of long, desert highways and lonely gas stations with its twanging guitars and haunting vocals.
‘She’s Gotta Run’ is possibly one of the poorer conceived of the tracks on the album, lacking the subtlety of the band’s other offerings. However, the only acoustic performance on the album, and the closing track, ‘Is It All Worth It?’, stands out as a beautifully, and particularly well-crafted, song with vocal harmonies reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and a finger-picking style lifted from Bob Dylan’s ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’. Similar odes to master songwriters from times gone by can be seen in tracks such as ‘Making Time’ and ‘Storm Will Pass’ where Morrison’s ragged drawl culminates in a contribution where the Neil Young influences are so overt that it might as well have mutton chops and a cowboy hat.
Treetop Flyers represent a growing trend of looking to the past for inspiration but not being embodied by it. “Looking back now, when I was a kid,” Morrison sings, and on this beautifully put together album, hopefully Treetop Flyers will be looking forward too.
Track to download: Things Will Change
