Since his early days in the mid 90’s dispensing wails and whimpers atop the quiet-loud emotive blasts of Texas legends Mineral, and the early 2000’s more synthesized (but no less bombastic) The Gloria Record, Chris Simpson has blazed an increasingly mysterious and autonomous trail with his Zookeeper (2004-2014) and Mountain Time projects (2015-present). And while the former began as a surprising left turn of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, The Band and The Kinks apostleship (heard best on Spartan Records vinyl reissue/compilation Saint Francis, Zookeeper (2021), and culminated in the stark, almost solo effort of 2014’s Pink Chalk — giving way to the broader strokes and John Cale meets Leonard Cohen-esque palette of the latter’s 2020 debut Music For Looking Animals — Mountain Time’s latest LP, Dream Homes finds Simpson’s storied past at once integrated and dissolved in an impossibly grand ocean of sound. Resembling little other than himself at this point (though one may hear strains of his longest-standing muses The Innocence Mission, or something like the chaotic glory of Big Star’s Third) his unmistakable croon more confident and focused than ever, Simpson leads the listener through a vast menagerie of dream-time landscapes, dropping Easter eggs at every twist and turn for future and returning Seekers, and painting a vivid picture of a creative life in full bloom.
