The
Sweetheart of the Rodeo affectations that sank the
Asteroid No. 4's last album, 2003's underwhelming alt country experiment
Honeyspot, are happily dispensed with on the far superior
An Amazing Dream. In fact, this album is a return of sorts to the tremolo-driven, echoing space rock of the Philadelphia band's debut,
Introducing the Asteroid No. 4, leavened with a few of the freakbeat hooks of its follow-up, the Carnaby Street-obsessed
King Richard's Collectibles. In fact, with its mixture of lulling psychedelia, complex and jangly guitar parts and low-key tunefulness, much of
An Amazing Dream sounds startlingly like the mid-'80s work of Australian college rockers the
Church, a connection the band makes explicit with a faithful cover of the
Steve Kilbey-penned "To Be in Your Eyes" (from
The Blurred Crusade). It fits in beautifully alongside similarly dreamy efforts like the vaguely threatening "Hey Joe" rewrite "Into the Meadow" and the gently galloping "Ask Me About Pittsburgh." While not as immediate as the power-poppy gloss of
King Richard's Collectibles,
An Amazing Dream is the
Asteroid No. 4's most mature and focused album yet.