"Shame On The Soul" is one of Q's 50 Essential Trackes

Speck Mounatin--Chicagoan's second helping of superior dream-pop.
If, as some reckon, a full-blown shoegazing revival is imminent, Speck Mountain have plenty going for them. In fact, Marie-Claire Balabanian's lonesome vocals, the languid pacing and fuzzy, opiated atmosphere their songs generate make them the closest thing there’s been to Mazzy Star for a long time. Though Balabanian and partner Karl Briedrick prefer to call what they do "ambient soul", what really matters is that they do it beautifully. Curtain-raiser "Shame On The Soul's" lightly-fingered tambourine, churchy organ swells and shards of acid-etched guitar instantly set the dreamy mood. Never straying far thereafter, it all makes for a heavily addictive, comfortably numbing kind of experience.—Peter Kane