Two Silver Trees sees Calexico continuing the trend of last album Garden Ruin, supplementing the moody Wild West atmospherics of their early work with their new enthusiasm for delivering a good tune.
Opening with a lovely Oriental-sounding plucked harp melody, it soon settles into a shuffly West Coast groove. With its stoner pace and reedy vocals, the song brings Neil Young most immediately to mind - but, Calexico being Calexico, there's more to it than that.
As with everything the Tucson natives have ever released, the spirit of the desert runs deep through Two Silver Trees. It's sparse, slow, mournful and full of subtlety, using music to recreate their landscape in a way that evokes the spirit of Ennio Morricone without using any of his now over-familiar motifs. If you close your eyes it's not hard to see the Mojave desert passing slowly through the open door of a freight train carriage.
Let's raise a glass of sasparilla to Calexico for taking the trouble to bring their prickly, dusty world just a little closer.
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