On the eve of their first-ever tour of the UK and EU, Nashville’s Promised Land Sound holed up in the studio with Pat Sansone (Wilco) and Billy Bennett (MGMT) to cut their first official recording since their acclaimed 2015 album For Use and Delight. It’s now available as a digital-only single above, or via your favorite platform for digital music.
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- Photo by Semi Song.
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- Photo by Semi Song.
Thanks to Clash for premiering the song and for their kind words:
“Promised Land Sound retain shards of Nashville’s country heritage, blasting these into a cosmic framework. 2015 album ‘For Use And Delight’ charmed the outernational psychedelic underworld, winning no small degree of praise in the process. Packing up the tour bus, Promised Land Sound have announced a string of European shows, including – glory be! – some UK dates. Alongside this, the Nashville group are ready to unveil the heavenly hymnal that is ‘By The Rain’. At times sparse and fragile, at others grandiose, Promised Land Sound seem ready to tune in, turn on, and play the game by their own rules.”
Here’s what the lads have to say:
“We were excited by how seamless working with Pat and Billy was, and how supportive they were while working on the project. We definitely can’t wait to work with them further. This song is about someone anticipating a positive change that ends up being an unexpected and unwelcome one.
The painting is by our friend Emma Schwartz.”
Tracklist
1. “By the Rain” 4:18
Catalog Number/Release Date
PoB-038 / Digital only: January 23, 2017
Purchase from PoB above or support via
- Bandcamp (digital)
- Smart link (digital/streaming)
More from Promised Land Sound
Acknowledgments for For Use and Delight
#37 Best Album of the Year. On constant rotation in the MOJO offices was this second album from a young Nashville five-piece who appear to have studied every great country-rock LP of the 1970s and added their own special mix of eerily hypnotic riffs, cryptic lyrics, and hazy, plaintive harmonies.
– MOJO
4/5 stars. Redolent of a summer road trip from the hazy Memphis of Big Star and Jesse Winchester to the shining Los Angeles of Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever, For Use and Delight is by turns plaintive and rocking, a wistful rhythmic journey into a band’s true beating heart … One of my LPs of the year.
– Andrew Male, MOJO
The loveliness and vitality of “She Takes Me There” reflects all of For Use And Delight. With a sound that’s at once more focused and wider-ranging than on its first album, the group shows why psychedelia is always a great aesthetic to revive: It provides plenty of historical touchstones, from The Byrds to the Rain Parade to Promised Land Sound collaborator Steve Gunn; but because the psychedelic experience is about mind expansion, it always goes somewhere new. Sad or happy, calm like this track or ripping up the studio, this band is on a path that’s deeply pleasurable.
– Ann Powers, NPR Music
Their current lineup is the very definition of synergy; every element enhancing and reinforcing the others until the finished product exceeds anything that could’ve been achieved alone. By the time the last 40 seconds of lead single “She Takes Me There” spin out into a cosmic, ragged howl of guitar noise, the track has already offered such an empathetic, yearning story about its subject that no other ending seems possible. What feels real is the power of this song to transform the past into a rippling memory, carrying it into the present on the wings of a melody.
– Caitlin White, Stereogum
8/10. Promised Land Sound approach their folk-rock source material with both wide-eyed wonder and deep understanding. Lead guitarist Sean Thompson displays precocious virtuosity, spinning out bent-note filigrees that recall the work of his legendary namesake. Joe Scala summons a strident quaver, evoking Dylan and McGuinn amid lysergic guitar splendor, suggesting this throwback band has a bright future.
– Bud Scoppa, Uncut
Loosely wandering but tightly composed forays into garage rock with a blurry, psychedelic edge. They may be from Tennessee, but their second LP, For Use and Delight, is more evocative of Dylan’s Infidels than Nashville Skyline, jetting off into lush and layered territory that pulls from Link Wray and the Band.
– Marissa Moss, Rolling Stone
In the past, the group’s music has referenced Gram Parsons; now, you can also hear the influence of British psychedelic band The Pretty Things.
– NPR’s World Cafe Live
The energy and the choogle remain firmly in place on the Nashville-based band’s sophomore effort, but For Use and Delight is a quantum leap forward in terms of songwriting, interplay and general righteousness. The immediate standout is “She Takes Me There,” a woozy heartbreaker that suggests a mid-70s collabo between Neil Young and Chris Bell. But the rest of the LP is stellar as well. It’s more the overall, locked-in vibe that ultimately stands out, as Promised Land Sound conjure up The Dead, the Byrds, and Blonde on Blonde, along with some killer sidetrips into krautrock, folk forms and deeper psych. This is the sound of a band coming into its own.
– Tyler Wilcox, Aquarium Drunkard
