The Dry Spells: Too Soon For Flowers

At times, listening to the Dry Spells’ Too Soon For Flowers, it feels overly simplistic and reductive to refer to tracks like “Sruti” and “Black Is the Color” as songs, when the word “composition” sounds more appropriate. Maybe it’s the ubiquitous, classical sounding harmonies of Tahlia Harbour and April Hayley that make the Dry Spells’ work a bit more formally dramatic than that of others playing in the same sandbox, but the band takes folk and rock influences and weaves them into mystic, heady tapestries worthy of such Californian forebears as Fleetwood Mac (whose “Rhiannon” is covered here as the album’s finale). At times, the lengthy pieces feels like they’re stretching themselves a bit beyond the band’s abilities, but that kind of ambition ain’t a bad thing at all, and will no doubt serve the Dry Spells well further down the trail.