“Well is this the point I’m trying to prove?” So asks Matthew Vasquez not long into his vocal journey on History From Below. His confusion mirrors our own, as lyrical points are few in the song in question, ‘Salt in the Wound’. It is this song which breaks the run of truly exciting efforts which opens Delta Spirit‘s second full-length, its quieter acoustic atmosphere more clearly exposing the minor but frustrating deficiencies in the band’s songwriting. Many of the songs here display a determination by the group to create synergy of lyrical and musical uplift, to forge passages of real transcendence, but just a little too often one of those two key elements lacks an elusive spark required for the songs to really take off. Notwithstanding this, History From Below is a mixed but generally warm, solid record with something to offer fans of soulful, rustic American rock.

When things work, they work. On the acoustic highlight ‘Ransom Man’, Vasquez paints himself as baleful outsider, talking ominously of death and relating that “they say Los Angeles is a desolate land” (Delta Spirit hail from just down the I-5, San Diego). One of the album’s songs which risks becoming too repetitive and predictable structurally, ‘Ransom Man’ plays with this by using a yawning pause to delay the last repetition of its refrain, intelligently lending the final line extra poignancy and impact, as well as embarassing anyone attempting to sing along. Also to its credit, the song includes the wonderful lyrical image of “the great returning of glass into sand”, a great inclusion despite the band’s inability to tie it more coherently into the rest of the song.

Also musically impressive but slightly lyrically agonising is opener ’911′. It’s a rollicking ride instrumentally, enlivened by the first of several great drumming performances, but let down slightly by the patchwork nature of its mildly political lyrics, which fail to logically connect references to the Wall Street crash of 1929, Vietnam, and 9/11. Throughout the first half of the album this pattern of tightly coiled, emotive rock performances with patchy messages abounds. The second half, unfortunately, is significantly weaker. The downbeat, funereal ‘Vivian’ is a real trawl to sit through, as is the obligatory overblown eight minute closer ‘Ballad of Vitaly’. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand why so many bands feel compelled to append such songs to their end of the albums. Alas, Delta Spirit fall into the growing category of bands who, more used to writing in a three-to-four minute format, flail around a little desperately in a larger canvas, squandering an opportunity to give their records a more confident epilogue.

Imperfect and sometimes lacking in focus, History From Below is arguably a document of a maturing band. The fact that its shortcomings are genuinely frustrating is a testament to the genuine quality of the record’s highlights; those highlights will draw a significant audience to the album, and deservedly so. Given the time to develop further, Delta Spirit might – just might – be able to put out a truly great album one day – History From Below is a step in the right direction.