November 17, 2023 by A.S. Van Dorston

Wolf People’s Jack Sharp releases second album of prickly psych noir brilliance.

It’s the most wonderful time of year, list season. A week before Thanksgiving, six publications have already released their year-end album lists. And for the moment, thanks to venerable British glossies Uncut and MOJO, a dark, progressive folk album with experimental tendencies looms on top, glowering in dour judgement in it’s short time on it’s perch before it’s engulfed in the avalanche of votes for more trivial bullshit. I wish that album was Large Plants, but since it’s just out today, it probably won’t make much impact on other lists. It’s too bad, because those who like Lankum’s latest would certainly like this, as long as they’re open to majestic, progressive psychedelic riffs instead of somewhat tedious drones.

When I first read that the second Large Plants album would be based on sessions recorded during the first album, I was concerned it wouldn’t be as good. But Jack Sharp did add more songs to reflect his evolution, so that it has a “folkier, proggier, more fantastic feel” than the heavier biker rock of the debut The Carrier, which made Fester’s Lucky 13 last year. This includes adding synths to the mix. Sharp thought it important to share that all tracks were recorded in a dirty metal barn in Bedfordshire that gave them a singularly rustic sound, and has since been demolished. Basically reassurance that he was not going full on electronic like so many artists, as it would have been ill advised to use anything fancy and expensive rather than cheap and used, because they probably would have gotten wet and dirty and rusty and voided the warranty.

While a live lineup has settled on Paul Milne (bass and vocals), Joe Wooley (guitar) and Itamar Rubinger (drums), the recordings are mainly Jack Sharp, who was responsible for three of the best albums of the 2010s with Wolf People. “Tendril” opens with a lone, forlorn distorted guitar, with a second guitar fading in to intertwine with sprightly plucking drawing on Turkish Anatolian psych and Tuareg desert rock. The title track is quintessentially autumnal, approaching the realities of hardship with grim perseverance as winter looms. “Wasted and Tired” starts out like a folk ballad, but halfway through engages in some fabulous twin guitar interplay, like if Tom Verlaine (Television) and Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention) got together. We’re gifted with more Wishbone Ash style guitarmonies on “This Lock Will Hold,” augmented by a lone mellotron line. It ends abruptly before it could really take off. Most of the songs are extremely succinct, under three minutes, so no jams to be found here.

“The Death of Plny” is a link to last year’s The Carrier in that it was released as a single in 2021. Sharp must have saved it for the second album because the haunted, dreamy vibe fits it better. The vocal melodies on that, “District Carrier” and “White Horse” are the closest links to his work with Wolf People. “Hope It Is a Feathered Thing” drops a great Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band reference with the cubist Blues interplay of guitar and chopped drum rhythms. “Every Single Day” features a wheezing, whirring synth with a spooky organ line on top for an an effectively atmospheric hauntological psych noir. The album circles back to Anatolian/desert blues psych guitar riffs on “Fire Alarm” and relatively unceremoniously ends the album after less than 35 minutes, which is actually slightly longer than The Carrier. However the short length is a strength, at least in terms of the complete absence of fatty filler. Just a prickly yet magical album that just may sneak it’s way to album of the year status.

Recommended for those craving more progressive, experimental folk along the lines of Fairport Convention, Trees and Pentangle, and contemporary artists like Lankum, Lisa O’Neill, Sam Burton and last week’s release by John Francis Flynn. More compatible to my ears are the haunting albums this year by Lucid Sins, David Eugene Edwards, The Keening and PJ Harvey at her most mystical. | Buy