At The Barrier psych-country favourite Ian M Bailey returns to take us from the ocean depths to outer space – via the Californian desert – on his new album, Lost In A Sound.
Release Date: 14th March 2025
Label: Kool Kat Musik
Formats: CD / Digital
IAN M BAILEY – LANCASTRIAN COSMIC COWBOY
Ian M Bailey is a familiar presence within the pages of At The Barrier. We loved the bright, Byrds-inspired jangly pop of his 2021 offering, Songs To Dream Along To and we reveled in the West Coast textures of his 2022 follow-up, You Paint The Pictures. And, now, the Lancastrian cosmic cowboy is back. This time around, Ian M Bailey is using his unique brand of psychedelia-tinged country rock to explore the depths of the oceans and to launch a space-probe from the expanses of the Californian desert.
Once again, Ian’s partner-in-peyote, Daniel Wylie has come along to co-write each of the songs on Lost In A Sound. The ghosts of great Americana writers and performers – Gene Clark, Gram Parsons and David Crosby in particular – are present and correct, too. Ian’s signature Rickenbacker guitar sound also makes a reappearance although, truth be told, it assumes a lower profile this time around. The idyllic imagery that pervades this album is provided, to a large degree by soaring pedal steel and lush – yet discrete – strings.
Lost In A Sound is an unmissable opportunity to experience unadulterated bliss.
THE WEST COAST SOUND IS ALIVE AND WELL
It’s easy to imagine that, with lyrics like: “Kids at war are killed or maimed by snipers or landmines, while kids their age are playing games…,” opening track, Rooks, is a left-over remnant from the anti-Vietnam spirit of 1968. But the sentiments expressed in the song apply equally to the strife currently ongoing in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa. The West Coast sound is alive and well, too, with strains of The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and even Blood, Sweat and Tears detectable in the song’s gentle, breezy psychedelia.
Ghostly vocal harmonies offer a mystical edge to Ian’s almost-whispered vocals in the gentle I’ll Be There to Save You. Electric piano, acoustic guitar and the merest hint of an organ provide the subtle accompaniment and the feeling bestowed is a spiritual one.
LET’S TAKE TO THE SEAS
Ian and Daniel take to the seas for the dreamy, evocative White Whale. Ian’s lyrics eulogise that majestic creature and the sincerity of his vocal tones suggest that he really believes in the words he’s singing. And we stay out there on the high seas for the calming Deep Blue Water. The strings are pared-back in favour of piano and guitar and celestial harmonized vocals turn the song into an inspiring epic.
Lost In A Sound is an album of two halves and breakup song, New Year’s Eve 2010, marks the transition from the first half’s dreamy seascapes to the druggy paradise of the warm, dry desert. It’s a folky, wistful number and a satisfying song, too, despite the desperation that Ian expresses in lyrics like: “A building condemned, and a person still living there, too..”
TIME TO BLISS OUT IN THE DESERT
The opportunity to bliss-out on the desert sands is launched by the not-quite-instrumental, Desert Star. It’s a fantastic slice of psych-country, built upon a deep, shuffling rhythm and awash with spacy guitars. I particularly love the bursts of tingly glockenspiel!
The archetypal West Coast harmony vocals are as light and uplifting as the wailing, grinding guitars are heavy in the excellent Welcome To The Desert. The lyrics – “Dream coyotes howling loud. Scenery for dreamers – there are no clouds in the sky. Lunar tides of love…” anchor the song in 1967 Haight-Ashbury, too. Cowboys in space, anyone? But we’re returned to the Earthly environment of a Spaghetti Western for the atmospheric Never Read The Signs. To an accompaniment of twangy guitar and subtly-placed strings, Ian assumes his best Gene Clark vocal to express the alienation he feels as European, magically transported to the middle of the Mojave.
THE SPIRIT OF GEORGE HARRISON
It’s the spirit of George Harrison – both vocally and thematically – that seems to inhabit the comforting, optimistic, Don’t Let The Garden Die. It’s a back-to-nature song that takes its country prompts from shafts of pedal steel. However, probe a little deeper and you’ll discover that there’s a touch of raga-rock going on just below the song’s surface.
And this engaging, stimulating album is brought to a satisfying close by the slow-building, contemplative The Desert Could Be Mars. Ian’s intimate vocal and strummed acoustic guitar is joined by simmering strings, before the electric guitar heavy gang kick in to emphasise the song’s enduring message: “It’s just a mirage.”
Lost In A Sound is an excellent album and, if Ian M Bailey is a new name to you, then this is as good a place as any to start correcting that particular omission.
It’s not on Lost In A Sound, but you can get a feel for Ian M Bailey’s brand of spacy Americana. Listen to California Desert Sundown, a song from Ian’s 2023 album, We Live in Strange Times, below:
Ian M. Bailey online: Website / Facebook / Twitter
Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube