THE COURT & SPARK Witch Season Absolutely Kosher Records ****

This San Francisco alt.country outfit might have borrowed their moniker from Joni Mitchell, but their genetic lineage is a whole lot closer to the spiritual homeland of Austin's Timbuk 3, with a nod in the direction of The Cowboy Junkies - plus a sense of humour. Witch Season is the band's third album, and at times lead singer MC Taylor comes over like a straying Lloyd Cole during his Love Songs period.

Reeking of indolent summers where droplets of guitar fall weightlessly on reluctant percussion, this is a Twin Peaks for the new millennium: full of unexpected twists and turns on the road, with one colourful character after another poised for a fleeting appearance before disappearing in a puff of smoke. It's a languid, deceptively dense backpack of songs that mines life's more elusive corners, where steeplechasing, sundowning and St John the Evangelist make for the most natural travelling companions.

Road songs (Denver Annie), tales that bespeak of illicit progeny of JJ and John Cale (Hallelujah 1) and the most unhurried bookend, Titov Sand the Blues, reflect what is a beautiful butterfly of an album. Now that it's emerged from its crysalis, it may be worthwhile to catch a glimpse of its technicolour wingtips before it gets swallowed up by the monochrome world that is the music world's public relations industry.

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Siobhán Long