MV & EE: Space Homestead

Matt Valentine and Erika Elder's music lends itself to abundance. It's laid-back, aimless, or in search of some ungraspable cosmic truth it doesn't expect to find. The journey is always the destination. Like other wildly prolific acts, Valentine and Elder have lived their creative ups and downs in the public ear, trusting the listener to pick out the gems from an increasingly vast catalog. Space Homestead, the group's umpteenth album but its first for Adirondack imprint Woodsist, is full of such gems. The album plays at the rootsy, relatively straightforward style Valentine has inched toward as of late (single: "Workingman's Smile"), but remains terrifically stoned. "Too Far to See" opens as one of Elder's trademark nod-offs but is soon thwarted by a smoldering Crazy Horse guitar solo. The even better "Wasteland" is everything that's great about MV & EE in less than seven minutes, a perfect encapsulation of the group's woozy and faithful Americana. (4 out of 5 stars)