Take a trip to the West Coast via London’s West End
I saw the Treetop Flyers at the SummerTyne Festival last Summer and was instantly struck by their combined youth and their ability to create a West Coast harmony based sound that bands many years their senior would have been proud of.
Here we are 11 months later and they have somehow managed to move in leaps and bounds with their debut album THE MOUNTAIN MOVES.
All of their songs now sound individual; but there is still a feeling of cohesiveness as the band wear their influences on their collective buckskin fringed sleeves. The vocals appear to be alternated between Sam Beard and Reid Morrison; but you couldn’t separate them with a cigarette paper as they both have soft and balmy voices that are perfectly suited to this type of ‘Soft Rock’ and the guitar playing throughout is in exactly the right place to never overshadow the singer, but still make the band sound like a guitar band.
While the Treetop Flyers are obviously predisposed to comparisons with the Byrds, Tom Petty and CSN&Y they have a quintessentially English feel to their lyrics; and that combination is just dandy in my little world.
Houses are Burning features some crackling buzzsaw guitar behind an irate singer and tub thumping drummer on a song about people who are being left behind in the march of time and is one of the best tracks on a fabulous album.
The love song Waiting on You is a tribute to Morrison’s late father; but will be the perfect accompaniment to a cold gin and tonic as the sun sets over a broken heart; as the singer drifts perilously close to Mick Hucknall territory but glides back in the nick of time.
Postcards is slightly different from the rest of the track with a punchy drumbeat and some pretty funky guitar licks over a ‘shoop-shoop’ chorus and a powerful pop song that will sound great on FM radio as your car promenades around town.
The album ends with a nod in the direction of English Folk-Rock with Is It All Worth It? Whoever the finger picking guitarist is owes a debt of gratitude to Richard Thompson but he has managed to impress me and will you too. It’s a lovely song and shows how diverse and clever the Treetop Flyers are.
All in all THE MOUNTAIN MOVES is a really impressive debut album and bodes well for the future.
http://www.treetopflyers.co.uk/
RELEASED April 29th
The Rocking Magpie 