Two Lone Star powerhouses unite on Texas Sun to create a smooth, groove-filled album that encapsulates a sun-drenched, leisurely drive down a long, lonesome desert road. Hailing from Ft. Worth, soulful crooner Leon Bridges contributes the vocals to the almost-entirely instrumental funk/psychedelic trio Khruangbin, who call Houston home. If you like either band, you’ll dig this album.
The trio (Khrungabin) mesh seamlessly with Bridges’ vocals on the title track “Texas Sun” which opens the album with warm, gentle strums of an acoustic guitar, progressing to the backdrop of gorgeous pedal steel and gentle psychedelia.
Khruangbin performing at Forecastle 2018
“Midnight” finds Bridges seductively singing along with Laura Lee’s (vocals/bass, Khrungabin) backing vocals and the group’s velvet-gloved rhythms. “C-Side” brings a looser limbed funkiness and is probably the most upbeat for radio play, while the longest track, “Conversion,” has Bridges weaving a classic hymn into his story of redemption.
Texas Sun doesn’t set out to be an ambitious record, but with Bridges showing a proclivity to take things slower than his solo records, Khruangbin makes for the perfect pairing.
