After recording two albums in their home studio,
the Black Hollies left the bachelor pad and ventured out into the real world -- or at least as far as Hoboken, NJ, where they shacked up inside the Pigeon Club to record 2009's
Softly Towards the Light. Earlier albums introduced the band's swirling, reverent brand of '60s psychedelia, but
Light couches those fuzzed-out guitar solos and double-tracked vocals in a more appropriate context, adding nostalgic production and a wider range of instruments to the mix. Justin Angelo Morey has always been the group's captain, but his bandmates do their own share of ship-steering this time around -- particularly Jon Gonnelli, who eschews his usual guitar duties and focuses on a wealth of Mellotron, keyboard, and organ parts. The chief agenda of every
Black Hollies album is to evoke the '60s, a decade that inspires every facet of the band's songwriting, and
Softly Towards the Light accomplishes that task with the most appropriate production of the band's career. ~ Andrew Leahey