Cosmic American Music: Motel California 2LP

A sequel that revels in the safe-for-the-suburbs vibe, "Cosmic American Music: Motel California" navigates a contradictory terrain between nostalgia and polished excess. This homage to vintage West Coast folk rock is unsettling in its dismissal of the political underpinning that made its predecessors, like Gram Parsons, resonate. With 20 sprawling tracks across two LPs, it presents a curated lens on the sanitized facade of commercial Americana, where the messiness of the past is too often replaced by glossy tranquility.