Moody psychedelic jamming, entrancing female voices (courtesy in this case of all three members), and a slow-burn tunefulness isn't a new approach by any means, so
Stealing Sheep aren't busting down any doors, whether hearkening back to
Mazzy Star or notable contemporaries like
Warpaint. On a song like "Gold," its conclusion of guitar filigrees and a huge wash of slow fuzz is as blissed-out and celebratory, in a familiar sense, as one could wish. But
Into the Diamond Sun shows the trio has its own ear for how to combine and recombine those elements, not least thanks to a balance of sprightly clarity and sudden shifting in the arrangements that feels more like a hip-hop mix transposed onto past approaches than just a jam. Consider the crisp percussion punches next to near silence at points on "The Garden," or how "Rearrange" shows friendly giddiness at points as much as random drones, while "Genevieve" is straight-up quick hooks one after another, however queasy and flanged the guitars and muffled the drums are (given the handclaps, though, that's all nicely counterbalanced). The rollicking drum punch and chant on "Shut Eye" feels much more like a hangover from 2000s indie than something older, but given the staccato arrangements, there's a refreshing spikiness at play. ~ Ned Raggett