Galley Beggar won my heart back in 2015 with their paisley-splashed third album, Silence & Tears, and the British folk rock troubadours haven’t let me down on its successor, Heathen Hymns. The band’s new album drops on April 28, and blends the traditional with the cosmic in a wonderfully engaging, unapologetically retro witches’ brew of psych rock, 60s folk, traditional standards, and outright flower power that stands as the band’s most complex release to date.
The addition of sitar and cello (as well as an appearance from Celia Drummond of UK acid folk legends Trees on the sublime ” Let No Man Steal Your Thyme”) add mightily to the otherworldly, pastoral vibes, and the overall mood of the album skews a bit darker than expected. One suspects that Galley Beggars have picked up a few tricks from their heavier peers on Rise Above—and it totally works. This is still winsome folk rock at its core, but there’s definitely some blacker magic at play here.
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Listen to their heathen hymns below, and look for the album from Rise Above Records on April 28.
Kim Kelly is hunting for Maypoles on Twitter.