I first stumbled across Windsor Airlift back in 2008, grabbed a couple of their EP’s, enjoyed them and then they slipped off my radar.

Anthony Johnson, one half of WA, got in touch (ooh a month or more ago, ouch) to flag up their new album The Meadow; I listened, and its was good. In fact I listened a lot, and it has accompanied me through a whole range of more contemplative activities, and it has firmly lodged itself in my head. The hard copy plopped through my door from Fort Worth Tx and has finally kicked me into writing the few words I promised so long ago.

If truth be told a ‘concept’ album about the life of a meadow feels a bit 1978 and not very Texan but The Meadow doesn’t have that heavy handed shtick attached to it, the tracks flow almost seamlessly together, the more ambient qualities kept firmly  in check so that the melodies surface and make themselves known, and writing now on an early spring day in the sunshine, it feels just perfect.

Its a rolling pastoral slice of music, gentle and soothing, vaguely familiar, aural balm. To my mind this is some of the best work WA have produced to date and has sent me back to play again some of their earlier output.

They have also produced a little clutch of YouTube vids to sit alongside the album, little snaps about making the album which are worth a scatter through.

Covered Landscape – The Meadow