Aquarian Blood - Bending the Golden Hour (2021) Hi-Res

The day J. B. Horrell’s daughter, Ava, received her driver’s license, she took the car out solo; Horrell quelled his anxiety by writing “Come Home,” a slight song about that terrifying parental rite. By the time his daughter returned—from a high-school volleyball game—Horrell had recorded half of the song; Ava capped off her day by singing the other half. Although the track marks the younger Horrell’s lone appearance on Aquarian Blood’s “Bending the Golden Hour,” it sits comfortably on an album that turns its nose up at stiff professionalism, embracing a lived-in familial charm. Co-piloted by J.B. and his wife, Laurel Horrell, the Memphis band entered the world as a fire-breathing art-punk outfit before pivoting to the sleepy psychedelic folk that dominates this third record. As the music softens and slows, the punkish air of looseness and spontaneity lingers.