Review Summary: California sun meets English rain
An unexpected development: it turns out that both of my early 2024 country-adjacent favorite records come from England. These standouts achieve their success in different ways, though - Brown Horse’s
Reservoir focuses on gritty bar band country-rock, while The Hanging Stars’ opt for a much lighter and airier approach.
Said approach isn’t a major transformation for this London band. They’ve been in the “Cosmic Americana” lane for a while, with my first experience with them being the 2022 effort
Hollow Heart, an effortlessly pleasant listen with solid replay value, even if the songs themselves didn’t particularly stand out as memorable. With follow-up
On a Golden Shore, the group doesn’t drift far away from familiar territory, but their execution is flawless enough to consider the latest result a notable step up.
For those readers still wondering what The Hanging Stars sound like, it seems evident that the band have been wearing out their Gram Parsons records, alongside albums like The Byrds’
Sweetheart of the Rodeo, The Grateful Dead’s
American Beauty, and The Jayhawks’
Tomorrow the Green Grass, with those kind of earthy yet transcendently beautiful influences felt in abundance on this release. The Hanging Stars have melded that sound with a couple styles more clearly associated with their homeland - a bevy of psychedelic touches and a hint of jangle pop, in particular. There’s definitely a Beatlesque tinge in places (particularly clear on “Happiness is a Bird”, and not solely because the track’s title sounds like a “Happiness is a Warm Gun”/”And Your Bird Can Sing” mashup). In addition, fans of fellow Englishman Honey Harper will probably find a lot to like here, with echoes of
Starmaker’s shimmery melancholy clearly present.
The eleven songs collected in
On a Golden Shore are easy-going and full of warmth, absolute ear candy from start to finish. The music is blissful, remaining ethereal while also possessing abundant pop sensibility. The biggest improvement here for The Hanging Stars is that the melodies are richer this time around, playing a key role in revealing some vital highlight tracks - “Sweet Light” is a total earworm, and “Disbelieving” is one of the most gorgeous country-ish jams I’ve heard in a while. Meanwhile, closer “Heart in a Box” is so subdued as to approach ambient, feeling like a sunset dream and leaving the listener to bask in the fading glow.
Lyrically,
On a Golden Shore tends to hew towards heartbroken tales of woe, fitting for the genre tradition, but nonetheless this album remains an absolute joy to listen to. It might be a classic case of a band doing the simple things right and leaning upon a near-perfect fusion of sound and vibe, but if you understand the basic purpose of music as being about playing tunes which sound great and make the listener feel things, well, then, The Hanging Stars seem to have it all figured out. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be across the pond, rollin’ down that lost highway.
