First album proper from South London alt-country outfit Grand Drive whose first outing 'Road Music' was really just a bringing together of the material on their first three EP's. Not that it in anyway seemed disjointed or haphazard.
Grand Drive do have a consistency of mood that their critics might deem samey but then those same critics you could argue just don't get it. The only criticism that still rings true is that they remain perhaps a little too in thrall of their heroes. But when those heroes are the legendary like of Gram Parsons and Glen
Campbell then it really would be over-churlish to chide them too much.
The scenarios that the Wilson brothers sketch here on 'True Love And High Adventure' will be familiar to anybody with an overfondness for boozy melancholia.
Opener 'Wheels' reads more like some last ditch hymn, 'Auld Lang Syne' swapping telephone numbers and regrets with 'Everybody's Talking' whilst the jukebox pulses away softly by the bar..
Harmonica bleeds through the entire album and yet never seems in anyway cliched or gratuitous. 'Nobody's Song in Particular' is a particularly sour yet affecting dismissal of love, 'My Best Side' Bob Dylan fronting the Flying Burrito Brothers after a three day whiskey jag.
Imagine if you can that Primal Scream's 'Give Out But Don't Give Up' was the over-riding influence on 21st Century country-tinged rock. 'True Love and High Adventure' is every bit as warm and heartbroken as that might suggest.
