What makes country music so special? The ability to convey heartbreak, rejection and depression better than any other music? Well, I guess the blues might do the trick just as well. So isn’t alt-country, a rocked-up version of country-blues after all? And hasn’t the modern alt-country template already been well-developed by the likes of the Jayhawks, Wilco and Son Volt (built on the foundations of Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, Gene Clark and Chris Hillman)? So what can the London-based Redlands Palomino Company bring to the table? For one, two fine vocalists in the husband-wife team of Hannah and Alex Elton-Wall. For another, genuinely enjoyable songs with feet firmly planted in the past and the present. In the case of the former, some of the vocal interplay is reminiscent of the classic Gram Parsons-Emmylou Harris team-ups on the two Parsons albums. There is intrinsic beauty in the harmony of the choruses of “Coastline” and “Please Come Running” for example. In the case of the latter, tracks like “Burning It Down”, “She Is Yours”, “Wasted On You” and the title track provide the wistful power and melancholic charm that the best of alt-country always delivers. Faithful to the country-folk tradition and exploiting rock’s sensibilities to the hilt, Take Me Home reminds us all why alt-country will continue to thrive in decades to come.
~ Kevin Mathews
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