[4/5] It's been nearly three years since the Snake The Cross The Crown released their full-length debut, Mander Sails, which was filled with weary, lachrymose acoustic guitars and quavering elocution-a trademark for the Alabama gents. Retaining those two signature elements and adding oft-melancholy emanation, the band's second album, Cotton Teeth, is filled with even more sleeper-folk oratory tendencies and underlying rock inclinations. Set to a beautifully glum background featuring soaring guitars painted with delicate keys and tranquil rhythms, Cotton Teeth's heavy grassroots appeal finds the quartet reminiscing of family ("Maps"), life travels ("Behold The River") and other Southern themes of rurality. Yet the album's delicate layers maintain a dazed swagger such as "The Great American Smokeout" with its vagabond piano while "Gypsy Melodies" cultivates a rally 'round spirit similar to John Mellencamp's Americana charisma. Yet Cotton Teeth is a mature album written under no pretenses-just straight-up honesty both in lyrics and sound. (EQUAL VISION) Jennifer Sica
 Official Website: http://www.equalvision.com
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