Wooden Shjips / West

Wooden Shjips
West
(Thrill Jockey Records)
* * * * *

That's 'West' as in Wild West, by the way. Psychedelic rock cowboys Wooden Shjips grew up on the East Coast of America, allowing for the opposite side of the continent to be experienced only in their imaginations - and now those early mythologising experiences have fed into the vibes on their fifth album of droning rock grooves.

Wooden Shjips shouldn't be as magical as they are: break it down and they're not radically different from say Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, playing stomping, big-booted reverb rock. Yet there's something entirely cinematic and righteous about songs like 'Home', which mark these men out as something approaching legends. It sounds like a western theme sure enough, but the production glistens like black gold.

Elsewhere the shamanistic Indian fantasties of The Doors are surely an influence on 'Flight', not least for its rattlesnake rhythms, acidic keyboard solos and the distinctly Morrison-esque croon of singer Ripley.

Nearly every other album is hawking acid rock these days, but Woden Shjips' brand of psychedelia is the only one you could imagine Timothy Leary endorsing: this is a great drugs album.