Hiss Golden Messenger – ‘Lateness Of Dancers’

Hiss Golden Messenger’s MC Taylor has often used his woody caw to sing of how unscrupulous believers use religious salvation as a get-out clause for their worst behaviour. The implication is that the North Carolina songwriter may also have been guilty of this; on his fifth record he rues, “Lord, I loved the outlaw life”, before admitting that it’s time to stop running and start the hard-won fight for internal peace. Accordingly, ‘Lateness Of Dancers’ is an Americana record of immense spiritual and musical grace, the arrangements sparer than on its ornate predecessor, ‘Haw’: sometimes it recalls Fleetwood Mac’s most AM-friendly moments, while songs like the grave title-track hum with the dewy possibility of new mornings. It’s heavenly, in its own troubled way.