Strapping Fieldhands - Across the Susquehanna LP (Petty Bunco, 2021)
EXCELLENT. Not only is this most likely my favorite rock record of 2021, but also, dare I say, quite possibly the finest Fieldhands record in all of their 30'ish-year output? You be the judge...
"Fourteen brand new instant classics from Philadelphia’s original purveyors of fractured psychedelic shanty rock. Pared down to the original duo & every bit as potent they were in the days of The Demiurge, Bob Malloy and Bob Dickie assembled Across the Susquehanna in their private isolations in the year 2020 -- literally traversing the mighty Susquehanna River via the ether as they crafted the album. What they’ve come up with is yet another in the deep canon of Fieldhands classics, an album of uneasy lullabies rich with Barrett-damaged melodies, spare arrangements as likely to feature a horn section as an overdriven strat, and Malloy’s ever evolving vision of a timeless pastoral psychedelia. To those who have been following the Fieldhands from the beginning, this new one will prove an essential piece of the intricate puzzle. To those searching for an entrance into this hidden world, the way in is Across the Susquehanna." - Petty Bunco