The follow-up to 2021's cosmic country opera
The World Only Ends When You Die
,
Flight of the Long Distance Healer
sees
James Wallace
(aka
Skyway Man
) deliver another endearing and offbeat set of celestial pop songs for the Psilocybin Age. A concept album inspired by correspondences between Dr. James Cyr and a woman named Kate, which
Wallace
and a friend discovered decades ago in the attic of an old motorcycle garage, the set is as subjectively impenetrable as it is immensely likable. The letters deal with the spiritual ramifications of alien ideologies, and
spins those mystical threads into earworm melodies that harbor telepathic communications from past and future, resulting in something that sounds like
Soft Bulletin
-era
Flaming Lips
enjoying a lost weekend with
Harry Nilsson
and
Van Dyke Parks
. Echoes of
ELO
's sci-fi pop majesty propel standout cuts like "Winds" and "Long Distance Healing" into the inky blue, while "The Holding On" and "Do Something Good," with their laid-back, Laurel Canyon cadences, ease themselves into the amygdala with serene potency. As always,
makes for an affable tour guide, and his steady presence helps ground the proceedings when they threaten to veer off enthusiastically into a nearby black hole. ~ James Christopher Monger