Boston’s Quilt is not blessed by age or geography to possess a legitimate claim on the ability to channel ’60s San Francisco as effectively as it does on the quartet’s third album. Seductively slinky opener “Passersby” exhibits the woozy, hallucinogenic vibe that circulated through the Haight in the heyday of the Airplane and the Dead, complete with atypical strings and heavenly harp.
“Eliot St.” could be a lost Donovan demo resurrected by Micky Dolenz for the hash-hazed b-side of “The Porpoise Song”; “Hissing My Plea” revamps the Beatles’ “Taxman” with a paisley shimmer; and “Roller” glides along on acid-folk gossamer wings. The band digs into its personal musical archive for Plaza as well, completing half-finished ideas and incorporating distantly conceived lyric shards into recently composed musical passages. Subsequently, Quilt doesn’t merely revisit retro glories on Plaza; it infuses them with contemporary indie-rock energy and melodic dissonance to create an edgy and engaging hybrid.
—Brian Baker
