Album No 5 from Hiss Golden Messenger – and their first for the celebrated indie label Merge – is, like its predecessor Haw, largely a full-band affair, moving away from the acoustic country-folk of their early records, though not dispensing with it entirely. On Mahogany Dread, the combination of MC Taylor’s Dylanesque voice, the despairing lyrics, the gently rippling guitars, and the mid-pace propulsion of the rhythm section puts the music within waving distance of the War on Drugs’s cosmic MOR. Lateness of Dancers is an understated album, not one to pick up in search of instant gratification. But when its pleasures reveal themselves (especially on headphones), they stick: the insistent guitar line tumbling downwards like rushing water at the end of Saturday’s Song; the sticky, Stonesy riff of I’m a Raven (Shake Children). It’s an album of discreet charm, but one that will reward those who give it time.
