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ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: The Bright Light Social Hour & Israel Nash’s “Neighbors”

Israel Nash’s shape-shifting maneuver from above-average rootsy singer/songwriter to expansive desert rocker has been one of the more interesting Americana storylines of the past few years. And while Dripping Springs, Texas, may not be a desert, per se, its scrub-covered hills have provided suitable inspiration for the native Midwesterner’s sojourn into a complex state of nature-inspired, pedal-steel-saturated bliss. 2015’s Silver Season hinted at drug-induced sonic experimentation while never straying from a rock-solid, melody-driven foundation.

Now, Nash takes it a half-step further, communing with his pals in the Austin-based psychedelic rock outfit the Bright Light Social Hour for a three-song EP that hints at the potentially vast and compelling full album you can only hope is in the works. Neighbors’ showpiece is “Lupita,” on which Nash and TBLSH’s Jack O’Brien trade verses that convey a timely narrative about an undocumented Mexican couple struggling to build a new life in the U.S. With its soothing wall of guitars and soulful longing for a fresh sort of spiritual transcendence in a damaged world, “Lupita”—like the rest of this EP—is the perfect detox soundtrack for our nation’s Trump hangover.

—Hobart Rowland