When the Storms Would Come

On their debut album When the Storms Would Come, Australia's Holy Holy have created a work that more veteran acts might spend years trying to achieve. Their expansive soundscapes and guitar-based bliss immediately bring to mind Mark Knopfler or CSNY (especially on "Pretty Strays for Hopeless Lovers"), but it's just as reference; their vision is entirely their own, the past soaring into the future. Album opener "Sentimental and Monday" is the sound of daylight breaking, a shimmery and comforting warmth that casts itself over the rest of the LP. There is a strong sense of freedom -- especially on the poetic "Outside of the Heart of It" and the galloping "If I Were You" -- that might be an appropriate soundtrack to a plaintive journey through the vast American West (or the lonely Outback). As the music twists and turns throughout the wide sonic landscape -- veering over deserts and catapulting over mountains -- Timothy Carroll's dusty voice soars, Oscar Dawson's guitar drives, and Graham