Lightning Dust - Infinite Light

Last year, Black Mountain’s In The Future was rightly hailed as a masterclass in stubbornly retro psych-rock. Who’d have thought that emerging from it’s colossal hash cloud of a shadow would be albums of stripped-back prog / folk? Stephen McBean wowed us with his Pink Mountaintops earlier this year, and now as Lightning Dust, two more Black Mountaineers swap their axes for penny whistles and go all mellow on our asses. If In The Future was a juggernaut, then this here’s a rickshaw: comfortable, sometimes fun, but ultimately underwhelming. Opening track, Antonia Jane, is brilliant. Catchy as a bout of the swine and emotive as Jacko’s memorial service. But with the bar set so high, the rest of the album struggles. I Knew is mildly irritating, but The Times is another terrific effort. Herein lies the problem: Infinite Light lacks the consistency that would elevate it from a good album to a great one.