Lightning Dust

Unfair though it may be, I find myself judging Lightning Dust like spring training tryouts for the major leagues of Black Mountain. But where Amber Webber and Joshua Wells' last self-titled album felt a little like demos that didn't quite make the BM cut, Infinite Light is in a different league. Ironically, that league occasionally sounds a little like the one that Pink Mountaintops played in up until their recent upscaling. For instance, "The Times" and "Never Seen" work two distinct alternate '70s vibes between bongo-crazy Stones and electro pop with unlikely hints of Ultravox. "I Knew" is an incongruously cheery Suicide homage for Prairie road trips. Even their more characteristic tracks show glints of sunshine through the West Coast grey. A couple of tracks even cop moody cello without sinking into a morass. It's a nice Sunday hangover soundtrack, all crooked smiles and cheerful complaints, to rehash the Saturday night burn.