Album Review: Dead Goat, Dead Goat

Hailed by this very mag as the north’s answer to the Traveling Wilburys, supergroup Dead Goat live up to their impressive pedigree with their life-affirming debut. Featuring Malojian’s Stevie Scullion, The Lost Brothers’ Mark McCausland, the Basement’s Declan McManus and Hot Press fave Matt McGinn, the band’s first offering is full of warmth, wit and grit.

Initially starting out as an informal jam session, the lo-fi LP is littered with lush lullabies, weird detours, and delicious Americana and alt-folk infused gems. Realising they captured lightning in a bottle with their initial demos, Dead Goat decided to release the original material rather than re-record it. The listening experience is best described as like sitting in your mega-talented mates’ living room, as they lay down down some sweet tracks.

Sonically, The Beatles’ Let It Be is a touchstone. But while that album documented the Fab Four’s unravelling, this is the sound of a band becoming even more tightly knit. The waltzing, ’50s-flavoured ‘Broken Arrow’ is a thrill that would fit nicely at Twin Peaks’ Bang Bang Bar, while the blues-fuelled ‘So Long John’ is an ice cool effort with a touch of glam. The psych-peppered ‘Prisoners Of The Dark’, meanwhile, is another treat that fans of Cat Stevens will lap up.

Boasting some of the best material these seasoned songsmiths have ever put their names to, Dead Goat is dead good.

8/10