Here's the thing. Call me a rhinoceros-hided heathen but I find Bon Iver's music a bit of a bore. Then again, Justin Vernon - Bon Iver - used to be in this group called DeYarmond Edison somewhere in Wisconsin. They split in 2006 but where he went off on an emotional quest into his soul that struck a chord with so many, the other three members, Joe Westerlund and Philip and Bradley Cook - Megafaun - explored more curious sonic pastures, glubbing deep into earthy country music while fiddling about with computers. I did like that.
Megafaun's last album, 2009's Gather, Form & Fly, emanated a wonderful sense of studio experimentation in an area you'd never expect it, Deep South folk-blues. Their new one is less self-consciously electronic but still has a roving spirit. It's also more pop, albeit in an Eighties Creation Records-meets-Gram Parsons kind of way, tinted with occasional edgy Velvet Underground trimmings. This is bearded music with its heart on its sleeve but just when you think it's gone all campfire maudlin it keeps swerving off. "Scorned", with its harmonica and wailing vocal, is a proper blues howl, "Isadora" is a jazzy instrumental, "Get Right" descends slowly into a mantric drone, and those after wibbly electronics won't be disappointed by the water-centric "These Words" or the bleepy "Serene Return".
Megafaun, their third album, reminds why more bands should borrow from The Byrds. The gospel-flavoured "You are the Light" is pure Sweetheart of the Rodeo and there's no shortage of honkytonk ballads either. Their music is country rock deconstructed and recreated with uniquely offbeat panache. Some will hark on, as indeed I have, about its exploratory qualities, but in truth most of it is simply amped-up songs for porches and touchingly effective in its simplicity.
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