The word on Nashville’s Fly Golden Eagle has traditionally been that they never quite managed to captured their formidable live sound on record, but Quartz surely comes close. Inspired by singer Ben Trimble’s time curating a 60,000-strong record collection, the album rampages through blues, soul, funk and psychedelia, by way of Doorsy organs, brass sections, glam-rock beats and vocals so heavily treated that they could be coming from a sweaty club in 1966. There’s so much atmosphere that this could almost be a live album, but beneath the sonic pandemonium and retro vibes lies solid songwriting: the Flaming Lips-y Monolith and Tangible Intangible are beautifully hazy love songs that just happen to be being played by a freewheeling psychedelic rock band. Trimble can’t resist inviting us to “take a trip”, but from Boychild Ghost’s eerie echo chambers to Stepping Stone’s Monkees-Led Zeppelin stomp, Quartz offers just that, with something different around every corner.
