Hiss Golden Messenger

Heart Like A Levee

MC Taylor takes his band project up to the next level.

Before making his sixth album as Hiss Golden Messenger, North Carolina’s MC Taylor looked back at his life and his family responsibilities. Musically, the outcome scotches perceptions of him just dealing in country rock and folk, or as a dust-dry troubadour. Heart Like A Levee is effectively Taylor’s Sticky Fingers – a coherent gathering of the various facets of his muse. Take opening cut Biloxi, which while suggesting Wild Horses, has the locked-tight swing of late-’80s Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. The sense of Taylor newly acquiring a swagger is reinforced by the stomping Tell Her I’m Just Dancing which follows. Not that Heart Like A Levee is all upbeat – Like A Mirror Loves A Hammer is a dark, swampy groove and the sparse Cracked Windshield is as wracked as its title. This feels like Hiss Golden Messenger’s overdue breakthrough album.