Hiss Golden Messenger: Lateness Of Dancers

Hiss Golden Messenger
Lateness Of Dancers
Merge Records
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Hiss Golden Messenger has totally ruled our 2014 and thusly our 2014 has ruled pretty hard. January saw the reissue of HGM’s 2010 lost masterpiece – a stark solo record that saw most of its physical copies destroyed in a warehouse fire, limiting the scope of its release – and this week brings their Merge Records debut Lateness Of Dancers. Our year has been bookended by two very different but wonderful albums by the same artist and that has us thinking about just handing all of our year-end list-space over to North Caolina songwriter and HGM leader M.C. Taylor. Lord knows the dude deserves it – he’s been making phenomenal country rock records for more than 15 years, heading the criminally underrated Court & Spark at the turn of the century. But for everything there is a season and this fall is the season for Lateness. An album of warm colors and earthy textures, Lateness is an album for warm sweaters and hard ciders, backyard firepits and late-autumn barbecues. There’s a tinge of melancholy around the edges of Lateness, but Taylor and company aren’t mourning the coming winter – tracks like “Southern Grammar” and “Saturday’s Song” brim with more posi-vibes than an early Sunday tailgate party.