It's amazing what a spot of gentle reinvention can do. Over the past dreamily introspective decade or so, Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell have gradually obliterated the traces of their formative years with third-rate shoegazers Slowdive and created something truly substantial with MOJAVE 3.
"Spoon & Rafter" slides in a staggering three years since they graced us with their presence last (with "Excuses For Travellers", if memory serves) and amid persistent rumours of extracurricular solo activity. If they're temporarily looking to different places that's fine, but let's hope they don't abandon the mothership, either, as "Spoon & Rafter" sounds like the best thing they've done to these grimy ears.
For starters, it opens with a quiet, meandering classic in "Bluebird Of Happiness". Worked up around that gentle, persistent "gotta find a way back home" refrain, it's built up via a keyboard wash, acoustic picking and the tiniest of glockenspiel before mushrooming into something far more strident and gorgeous for Rachel to do her most angelic and ghostly counterpoint to Halstead's opiated Neil Young. It's in no rush to let go, but hardly outstays its' welcome for all that.
Refreshingly, "Spoon & Rafter" barely puts a foot wrong as proceedings unravel. Indeed, there's a clutch of further downbeat gems in "Writing To St.Peter" (exceptionally atmospheric ballad, with lugubriously rolling drums, strokes of piano and Halstead heart-rendingly observing: "when he held you in his arms, the world was so much nicer"); "She's All Up Above" (Halstead adopts a credibly Wayne Coyne-ish timbre as he band go all Flaming Lips on us - minus the massive drums, but with seductive pedal steel scudding by) and the truly moving "Hard To Miss You", where only piano and tremulous glockenspiel accompany Halstead and Goswell. All are seriously lovely, memorable outings.
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But it's not (quite) all lovelorn, heartbreaking set-pieces round Mojave mansions. "Spoon & Rafter" also includes the surprisingly jaunty anthem for the dispossessed that is "Tinker's Blues", the bruised, but attractive pop of "Starlite #1" and - best of all - the lethally addictive "Billoddity", which has ace, moog-y textures and a mega, insistent tune. Without question it's the best tribute to the weird beard, nature-loving bloke out of "The Goodies" going. Bloody hell: if they can write one this good about Tim Brooke-Taylor, then we'll consider a perfect 10 the next time round!
Brilliantly, "Spoon & Rafter" also keeps two superb tracks in reserve for the closing stretch. The penultimate tune is the dreamy "Too Many Mornings", which despite its' wasted subject matter features a load of hopelessly catchy "la la la"s, hammond organ and is a breeze to listen to. However, it's usurped by "Between The Bars", where drifting hamonica, banjo and desert steel combine to set up a "Harvest" feel, with Neil 'n' Rachel giving it their best Neil' n' Linda.
Like many of the songs here, it's way better than pastiche, though, and while "Spoon & Rafter" does sport its' clearly discernible influences on its' collective sleeve, it's perhaps the most convincing argument yet to get behind Mojave 3 for the long run.
"I swear I won't let go...this time," choke Neil and Rachel in unison toward the end. Let's hope they mean it, too, as "Spoon & Rafter" vividly suggests Mojave 3 still have it all to play for.
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