Marble Son

iTunes Review

Marble Son is where Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter shake the alt-country label and get heavy. Beginning with the epic-length “Hushed By Devotion,” which starts lush and spooky and ends in an extended Zep-like breakdown, the album is moody, dark, and psychedelic. Fusing Southern rock with sludgy Northwest riffs the Seattle band creates a shadowy and mysterious sonic landscape that is reinforced by Sykes’ cryptic lyrics and riveting vocals. Even at its most delicate and lovely her voice can still be unnerving. The band maintains a hard edge on spacious and textured ballads like “Wooden Roses,” “Be It Me, or Be It None,” and the title track, as well as on the sprawling psych rockers “Ceiling’s High,” “Come to Mary,” and “Your Own Kind.” “Pleasuring the Divine” and “Weight of Cancer,” two of the more dynamic tunes, serve as showpieces for co-songwriter and guitarist Phil Wandscher, who plays a wealth of stunning guitar on the album. The sheer variety of tones he achieves is a pleasure. He sounds gritty, crunchy, crystal-clear, or distorted beyond recognition, often all on the same song.