Cyann & Ben Issue #31

Sweet Beliefs (Ever Records)

By Anna Breshears
Published: March 1st, 2007 | 12:00am

Cyann & Ben’s Sweet Beliefs evokes the Paris of the poets, infusing gauzy space rock with a melancholy ambiance found in the darkest corners of the city. Drawing on bands like Low, Jessamine, and Flying Saucer Attack for inspiration, the quartet’s songs combine folk melodies with hazy atmospherics and soaring psychedelic dénouements.

By and large, the band balances the beauty with the blast. The expansive, drop-dead gorgeous “Words” finds Cyann’s ethereal vocals dissolving into rumbling percussion and dense organ moving toward a gripping finale. The epic, nine-minute closer “Spark of Love” progresses in a pleasant half-sleep before chugging, distorted guitar chords interrupt the nap. “Sunny Morning,” with Espers’ Greg Weeks on guest vocals, backs off the slow-build-to-towering-conclusion format by working from a vapor trail of cosmic sounds to a haunting pastoral.

Yet, Cyann & Ben stumble when their ambition turns to excess: the heavy-handed guitar and off-beat drums at the close of “Sweet Belief” junk up its gentle romance and “In Union With” falls prey to over-the-top psych-rock burnout.

Sweet Beliefs proves Cyann & Ben are unafraid of lingering too long or jumping into the fray from near silence. It’s an impressive collection of shadowy, intimate work scripted with grand, unhurried strokes.