These aren’t cool folksters clapping and singing “ooh” over banjo-laced stomp music. Instead, Futurebirds’ use of a banjo and even a pedal steel guitar and mandolin seems utterly organic and necessary to their psych-country sound. On their 2015 record Hotel Parties, the band, originally from Athens, Georgia (most of the members have since moved away from the musically influential Southern college town), chose to highlight a more stripped-down rock sound than on previous efforts. That doesn’t mean the weight of their music has gone away — they have six members, after all. Some of the songs are mood-enhancing and dreamlike, accomplished through fuzzy guitar riffs and occasional keyboard solos. At it for more than six years, the Futurebirds have finally settled into their sound.
— Laura Johnson