A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down and if The Sailmakers were doctors then they could rightfully prescribe their “Shifting Sands” EP and expect no complaints by the patient regarding the ease of consumption. Their music is, after all, seems designed to be easy on the ear and therefore, before I trip over my own metaphors, easy to swallow.
So what we have here is a sugary confection of folk and those always popular west coast psych pop influences mixed with a naturalistic and unforced performance. The resulting songs, especially “Sandblow” and “Come Undone”, sound like they have just been dropped out of a time machine as it flew over the band’s West Yorkshire stomping ground. However, and pleasing as it is to hear a band lost once more in laidback melody and reverb, they don’t really seem to gain proper focus until they pick up the pace in “Only The Sky”.
“Shifting Sands” is undoubtedly an easy listen and that will suit many people but I prefer less sugar and more chilli in my sauce.