Double 180 gram vinyl.

So they are back, sounding remarkably like the Mazzy Star that left us 17 years ago. I was never a massive fan but their slo-mo drifty music ocassionally hit the mark. This album will do everything a Mazzy Star fan would want.

It starts spectacularly, "In the Kingdom" is a gorgeous slab of '60s inspired washed out sultry balladeering. Melodically not dissimilar to James and Bobby Purify’s "I’m Your Puppet" it's based around a nice solid organ melody and David Roback’s atmospheric slide guitar. Even better is "California" which has a swampy acoustic guitar, not unlike some of the darker recesses of REM’s Automatic For The People, gentle organ provides beautiful textures but it's Hope Sandoval’s whispered vocals that stun. A really beautiful evocative piece.

Elsewhere it's business as usual, as if Mazzy Star were frozen after Among My Swan and unleashed at a time where they might be more appreciated. Mostly mid-paced, acoustic guitars chug away in a kind of semi-stoned manner, haphazardly joined by subtle instrumentation, Colm O Coisog from My Bloody Valentine is here and there doing a bit of this and that, Bert Jansch makes an appearance (presumably before he died), the album drifts, you start nodding off but then are jolted awake by the gentle beauty of it all and wonder how people create music so soporific whilst actually staying awake. If you like Mazzy Star chances are you’ll love it. If you like Beach House and all those reverbed dreamers, I’d reckon you will find much to enjoy here and will be swiftly nipping out for the back catalogue.