The Wild Feathers “Sirens”

Evolving in the right direction, The Wild Feathers nail it.

Musical and artistic evolution is something many bands find hard to do during their life cycle, but it is certainly not an issue for The Wild Feathers. Fourteen years in and the Nashville band continue to develop and morph in terms of both their sound and their songs.

Six albums in (four studio, one live and one rarities) and following on from their excellent “Alvorado” in 2021, their new long player “Sirens” continues to see the band not only expand their horizons once more, but it nails down their willingness and ability to experiment with genre and style.

It is hard to pin The Wild Flowers down to any single musical category because they can nail any one of about a dozen of them. Harmony and melody are among their strongpoints, as is their ability to shift gears from, say, catchy mainstream pop, to southern boy kick-ass rock to anthemic West Coast balladry.

All of the above are in evidence here – and much more. The opener ‘Stereo’ is destined to become a live fan favourite (and hopefully a hit with DJs the world over, which it deserves to be) and sets the tone for the rest of this Shooter Jennings-produced effort.

Jennings has been around the block a few times and his expert touch here has helped the band find further confidence in their own abilities – songwriting and playing. ‘Sanctuary’ is a surefire hit in the making and will also be a live gem when they tour this record.

A record of growing maturity and confidence, then, from Ricky Young, Joel King, Taylor Burns, Ben Dumas and Brett Moore and if they continue the upwards trajectory, who knows where it will take them.