I’ve seen a fair few interesting RIYL (Recommended If You Like) lists, but Sandro Petti’s stands out as nothing if not varied, listing Destroyer, Bill Callahan, Silver Jews, Julian Lynch, and Fleetwood Mac. You have to wonder what extent the fan-bases of Fleetwood Mac and Silver Jews intersect (I’m going to go on a limb and suggest I’m probably in a very small minority, but I’m prepared to be wrong).
Soft Landing has been a long time in the making, featuring as it does songs Perri has been playing around with for the better part of the last decade, and recorded sporadically over a long period.
The first is quite the epic: the 16-minute ‘Time (You Got Me)’ is sparse, mellow, countrified, and drifts along with soft string synths and hand percussion providing a steady, supple backdrop to chiming, picked guitar and laid-back vocals that laze in a bath of reverb. And then it drifts off on a slow rippling tide of jangle and deconstructed wig-out at a low tempo.
‘Floriana’ with its slow brass and noodling guitars straddles prog and jazz with a heavy hint of nostalgia seeping through its slow tempo, and if you’re after anything of pace, move on now. ‘God Blessed the Fool’ sounds like Siver Jews covering Syd Barret, with Prince on drugs on vocals.
It sort of feels like a long, slow wind-down thereafter. And that’s cool. We’re all overstimulated. This is a nicely-arranged antidote.
