Jeff McCord on the month’s new releases

Dale Watson

Dreamland

Koch

For a time, DALE WATSON had it all. The Austin transplant was one of the state's brightest rising stars, a honey-voiced honky-tonker with looks and talent to burn and a rapidly igniting career. It all derailed in 2000, when his girlfriend, on her way to one of Watson's gigs, died in a car accident. The singer fell apart, began a self-destructive binge, released a cathartic tribute album, and more or less drifted for the next few years. No longer. DREAMLAND (Koch) is not only a return to form but his finest set of songs to date. Produced by Ray Benson with a seamless Bakersfield sheen, Watson rolls out originals that already have the feel of future standards.

The Secret Machines

Here is Nowhere

Reprise

A Dallas trio, THE SECRET MACHINES, decide they need a challenge, so they set off for New York City without much money, sharing a loft with their gear. Without the ways or means to do much else, they woodshed, developing the songs for their full-length debut, NOW HERE IS NOWHERE (Reprise). The result is one of those musical thrill rides, full of the unexpected twists and turns that spring only from creative isolation. While rooted in a retro seventies sound, touching on disparate influences like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Brian Eno, Krautrockers Neu and Can, even prog rockers like Hawkwind, the Machines somehow craft something modern and wholly original. Melodic, propulsive, bombastic, yet buoyed with an indie-rock spirit, Now Here is an out-of-no-where delight.

Polyphonic Spree

Together We're Heavy

Hollywood

Have these guys seen the news lately? It's not really the time for sunny optimism. Or maybe that's the point. Dallas's POLYPHONIC SPREE, led by ex­Tripping Daisy front man Tim DeLaughter, is a twenty-odd-member band that traffics in Sgt. Pepper's/Pet Sounds orchestral pop—decked out in choir robes, no less—with a blissful cultlike fervor. Onstage, their enthusiasm is catching. Getting it on record is another matter. Their second album and proper major-label debut, TOGETHER WE'RE HEAVY (Hollywood), is gorgeous-sounding, full of swirling and gliding ear candy. For a while, it really takes hold. Then again . . . You know when you run into unrelentingly upbeat people? Their attitudes seem refreshing at first, right up until the point that you suddenly want to strangle them.