Speck Mountain's session in John McEntire's Chicago studio must've come with a free flowing stock of valium and warm milk. Summer Above's seven songs never try to outreach the psych-y drones and organ-inflected Mazzy stars that color most of the intro effort -- instead their dream pop revels in reverb, and slowly marches to a tambourine-marked pulse and Marie-Claire Balabanian crystalline vocal beam. The innocence-lost ballad "Stockholm" is a must grab, seeing a jilted girl's grief turn from "a fjord into a lake." Heartbreaking, right? Soundtrack worthy. We've also included the title track so you can get a dose of Speck when things aren't quite as dire (though just as lovely).
Speck Mountain - "Stockholm" (MP3)
Speck Mountain - "Summer Above" (MP3)
Be sure to check out "Fjord Song" and the very Mazzy "Midnight Sun" at MySpace. Summer Above is out 10/2 via Burnt Brown Sounds.
