Radiant Door

Radiant Door is the flipside of the psych-rock coin: if you’re not riding a bolt of lightning to the unknown as guitars howl and clang, chances are you’re floating into an ether of otherworldliness. That’s the feel throughout Radiant Door. There's a crispness to the percussion and guitars on the surprisingly airy title track, and gleaming organ riffs and crystalline acoustic guitar raise “Dark Eyes” out of the gloom. The Lee Hazlewood–penned “Still as the Night” is a revelation: Brad Hargett’s cavernous lament is right at home riding J.B. Townsend's twangy guitar into the sunset, a cold wind at his back. “Frost Inside the Asylum” is straight out of the Velvet Underground playbook, this time with echoing tom drum and tambourine shards full of melancholy rather than menace. Another cover, “Low Profile,” celebrates a relatively unknown ‘80s English band, The Blue Orchids; it follows the original's arc and feel while injecting the Stilts’ own funereal vibe. Open the Radiant Door: everyone's welcome here.