The name of this Georgian sextet explains it all. Summer Hymns specializes in tender, quavering ballads, creating low-budget country soundscapes laced with a psychedelic calm. The band resembles Sparklehorse in its softness and fragility, but replaces the sadness of Mark Linkous with a lazy, laid-back smile. Fool’s Gold is meager on time (a mere 28 minutes) and generous with its sensory invocations. More than once, I could have sworn the post-rain shower smell of mid-July had crossed my nostrils.
Appeared in the March 2004 issue of Rockpile magazine.