Nothing as the Ideal

The sixth studio effort from the mercurial Nashville psych-rockers, Nothing as the Ideal sees All Them Witches reunite with Dying Surfer Meets His Maker producer Mikey Allred for a bold and bracing collection of songs that plays to all of their strengths. Paired down to a trio after the departure of keyboard player Jonathan Draper, the band have crystallized their signature amalgam of improvisation and songcraft into an exclamation point where every soaring lead, snare crack, and mechanical whirr feels essential. Recorded at Abbey Road in London, the eight-track set makes good use of the legendary studios analog infrastructure, peppering the proceedings with fragmented loops and rewinding reels, all the while maintaining a radiant classic rock core. Its also the groups heaviest outing to date. Bruising opener Saturnine & Iron Jaw arrives via a wash of wheezy electronics before locking into a meaty Kyuss-meets-Masters of Reality groove. The propulsive Enemy Is My Enemy follows suit, peddling its Sabbathy wares with precision and sonic might, while the nearly ten-minute See You Next Fall emerges from its Twin Peaks fever dream of an intro into a burly existential blues odyssey fleshed out by some truly wonderful guitar work and a trippy drum solo finale. ATW have always maintained an impressive command of atmosphere, and the immersive Nothing as the Ideal is no exception, with the hymn-like instrumental Everest and the eerie mountain-folk fable Children of Coyote Woman (a callback to a pair of cuts from 2013s Lightning at the Door) conjuring mood with shamanistic prowess. Rats in Ruin, which feels like an omnibus of everything that precedes it, closes the album in spectacular fashion, delivering a ruminative stadium-sized waltz that descends into a droning musique concrete-inspired midsection, before reassembling itself as a Category 5 hurricane intent on making landfall in the nosebleed section. ~ James Christopher Monger