Silver Seas – Chateau Revenge

The third LP from Nashville's Silver Seas sees them further honing their brand of melancholy, country-inflected jangle-pop. It's deeply nostalgic music, but the band's influences – Steely Dan, the Byrds – are actively engaged with rather than merely regurgitated. The strongest songs (Jane and Candy are both standouts) have a painstakingly-polished vintage gleam, assisted by bright, sharp production. In contemporary terms, the tone of Chateau Revenge has much in common with bittersweet alt-country acts like The Pernice Brothers.

If Silver Seas' touch does falter occasionally, it's on the more upbeat tracks like The Best Things In Life, which sounds too much like a novelty homage to Elton John's I'm Still Standing to have any authenticity of its own. For the most part, though, the songs here speak for themselves. For anyone who believes 70s-grounded country rock can and should remain relevant today, there are few better defenders of the tradition around.