If the word “soft” appears in the title of something music related, it’s often a pointer to just how good it is: The Soft Bulletin, The Soft Moon, The Soft Boys, Soft Machine…errr, soft rock? So, Seattle’s The Soft Hills have a lot to live up to with their new album The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth. Their music is a blending of cosmic folk and psychedelic country, formed and honed over the course of two previous releases, the Painted Word EP and the Noruz album. The four-piece – Garrett Hobba, Brittan Drake, Randall Skrasek and Brett Massa – belong to simpler times, be it the Laurel Canyon of the ’60s and ’70s, or the burgeoning gold prospecting days on the US West Coast; their music is yearning, with a sense of loss but also rebirth; and to be honest, you’re going to hear many worse records in 2012 than this little nugget of psych pop.

The finest example of the band’s songwriting is found on opening track ‘Phoenix’. A mix of druggy early Eagles and classic Neil Young, it’s a beautifully keening song beginning as a gentle pastoral with Hobba pining for a getaway (“You can ride with me anytime you want, we can journey to the end of the night/We can look for treasures of our own delight”). As the harmonies build the song slows down and a tension builds, the change in mood reflected by some crackling Crazy Horse style electric guitar and foreboding lyrics: “Fire and ashes; this whole town’s gonna bleed/The fever passes, but I’m still down on my knees…darling please”. However the mood lifts and we return to the optimism of the beginning of the track, the titular phoenix rising with hopefulness. In a trippier analysis of the song, it could be seen as a vision quest, a rebirth of consciousness, and a new beginning.

There is a hippy element to The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth, with some tracks veering worryingly close to pastiche, but for the most part The Soft Hills stay the right side of the parody line. A song like ‘Purple Moon’ (“Virgin bloom, wanna eat your fruit….wanna drink from your fountain”) shouldn’t work, but Hobba’s wide-eyed innocence imbues the slowly-unwinding country ballad with a likeable quality; ‘Days When We Were Young and Free’ is equally innocent, with Hobba wistfully singing of simpler times, and ‘River Boat’ calls to mind early Grandaddy by adding some woozy synth sounds to the gentle and dusty song.

It’s not all bucolic though, as some much-needed crunch is added on ‘Tidal Waves’ through some huge drums and spiky guitars, spiralling into a mid-song freak-out and howling solo. ‘Chosen One’ is a pleading rocker that talks of “stepping over to the world beyond”, once again referencing that vision quest, searching for something beyond the material. It gives the album a bit of necessary tonal variety: I’m not sure a whole record of dreamy visions would have been all that interesting to listen to, as confirmed by the rather grey and uninteresting ‘Return to Eden’ and ‘Midnight Owls’. Thankfully the final two tracks ‘It Won’t Be Long’ and ‘Falling Leaves’ are strong enough to leave things on a positive note, the latter a particularly gorgeous tune with beautifully plucked acoustic guitar and lyrics that suggest the quest is over: “the raven’s call leads me back to my home…”.

The Soft Hills are never likely to be world-beaters, but in the January gloom of early 2012, The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth offers some lovely moments, some fine songwriting and a sense of wonder that’s not always easy to find in these cynical times.