Rest

While the Dreadful Yawns have been described as a psychedelic-influenced group, that might be a misleading indication of how this group sounds, at least on its third album, Rest. In truth, they're simply a quality roots rock band whose music is both intelligent and pretty. If you think that dressing up country-folk-rock with well-placed organ, strings, bells, autoharp, and an eerie vibrating saw qualifies as psychedelic, there's no harm done. But these touches are not used to draw attention to themselves, or make the songs sound deliberately spacy and unusual. Instead, they're employed in much the same manner as the best folk-rock and country-rock bands of the 1960s did: to enhance the songs texturally and draw out their inherent subtle, shifting shades of mood. If the vocals occasionally recall those of Roger McGuinn, they do so in a good, non-reverential way. The album doesn't add up to a major statement, but there are plenty of pleasurable low-key songs along the way, usually offering a slightly whimsical, but not quite world-weary, brand of introspection. It's more Americana than neo-psychedelia, to be honest, but not as dry and unduly earnest as the typically alt-country or Americana band of their age.