Blessed Feathers: Peaceful Beast in an Ocean of Weeds

On Peaceful Beasts in an Ocean of Weeds, Wisconsin’s Blessed Feathers prove that hazy sounds can still be awfully substantial. Despite the dusty folk vibe here, mixed with the gauze of dream-pop in places, these songs rumble on terra firma, bouncing through “By Song Through the Americas” and stretching out in the shadowy, bittersweet space of “Holyoke/Springfield”. As these titles imply, there’s a propulsion to these songs, an on-the-road feel that keeps the songs both moving forward and bleeding out into the surrounding space. “Hey! All You Floridians” celebrates the fleeting glimpses of other people on the road, wishing them well while imagining their path, and that combination of highway miles and imagined paths traveled in the mind makes this record a fascinating, charming listen. Despite the band’s light name, there’s heft to these songs, muscle, but that strength presents itself in sweet melodies, in the shimmer of chords and shuffle of drums. The expansive nature of the band’s sound belies the EP’s 16-minute run time, so even if it doesn’t take long to get through, there’s plenty to return to in the fertile musical land of Blessed Feathers.