Texas Jerusalem Crossroads

We Say...

Review by Nick Southall

Lift To Experience did that most beautiful thing; made one (almost) perfect album and then vanished. Their dissolution is understandable though; after producing a concept double-album about being the best band in the end of the world, there really wasn’t much room to write a follow-up.

Like all the best three-pieces (The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Morphine, Nirvana), Lift To Experience made a fantastic noise; there’s something primal about the simplicity of the set-up when there’s nowhere to hide, and in which lesser bands can easily be exposed. The Texas trio coupled their gloriously basic logistic with a streak of apocalyptic redemption that elevated them above their often very clear influences.

Because it’s clear very quickly that the band are studied shoegaze enthusiasts, at times recalling early Verve, My Bloody Valentine, Kitchens Of Distinction, Spiritualized and a host of other British bands obsessed with coaxing sonic cathedrals from their instruments; indeed, the album is mixed by the Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie. Guitarist, singer and bandleader Josh T. Pearson caresses, beats, soothes and strangles an array of extraordinary sounds from his guitar over the course of the album, such that he felt the need to proclaim “Ladies and gentlemen we are playing with one guitar” on the sleeve.

It feels like Lift To Experience are more interested in leveling cathedrals than constructing them, though; song titles flow into one another, creating two doom-laden, Biblical sentences which reflect the bizarre yet prophetic lyrical conceits that run through The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroad, Pearson delivering these words of apocalypse, redemption, faith and sand with both enough pathos and enough of a grin to prevent the record collapsing into parody. Of course it helps that he has an extraordinarily powerful and delicate voice, and that his band concocts a sound as wide, barren and profound as a desert.