Out in early July, this is an album you really, really should buy. Starvation Under Orange Trees is a lush, beautiful record that drifts disarmingly between scratchy desert Americana and slightly melancholy West Coast pop. This gives it a wonderful foundation of wistful sadness, upon which shimmering mirages of optimism and relaxed contentment flit about enigmatically.

I rather lazily assumed this was a debut, which turns out to be utter bollocks. A quick Amazon search finds a couple more albums, about which I confess to knowing nothing at all. But it does make sense. There is a definite control and confidence about this album – jaunty when it needs to be, sparing when it doesn’t – that you rarely ever see in a debut.

They can often sound a lot like the laments of dust-bowl drifters that inhabit many a Richmond Fontaine album, but playful piano, surprising duets and a frequent but subtle loosening up into a low-key Summer strum lift this away from Willy Vlautin’s often desolate outlook into something a little harder to pin down. Another comparison would perhaps be Leonard Cohen as well, although only in elements, rather than whole songs.

Based around the books of John Steinbeck, this music embraces the misery he can create, but fundamentally leaves you with the more optimistic outlook that occasionally ran hand in hand with much of the bleakness in his writing. Imagine going through the worst time in your life, making the decision, making the break, and starting out a-fresh. Nothing has improved yet, but things have changed. You’re sitting there in the late afternoon with a cold beer and your feet up watching the sun set and the light change and despite everything you feel that moment of courage and confidence that occasionally comes at these times. You feel like it can be done.

And that is the atmosphere of Starvation Under Orange Trees.

Ray’s Vast Basement – The Story of Lee
Ray’s Vast Basement – How Through Sacrifice Danny’s Friends Gave a Party This duet reminds me so much of the McGarrigle Sisters it’s unreal.

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