REVIEW: Red River Dialect - Basic Country Mustard

They say God sent a tidal wave but no one knows the crime

46:02 // November 14, 2025 // Hintergrounds Recordings

The 2019 LP Abundance Welcoming Ghosts was my first experience with Red River Dialect, and it left a lovely impression with its tasty slab of colorful, psych-tinged tunes. The Cornwall-hailing collective is a rare modern folk act which operates with one toe dipped in contemporary indie folk, another in the Nick Drake-ian British scene, and yet another towards the Celtic style, but never leans too hard in any particular direction.

The band’s follow-up took a while, but the goofily-titled Basic Country Mustard wastes no time in reminding the listener of the group’s enduring strengths. There’s a gentle warmth which exudes from this latest batch of emotive songs.

Taken as a whole, Basic Country Mustard feels less energetic and more dour than its predecessor. Hushed tunes which echo the ambling pace of rural life predominate, even if a few tracks (notably “Torrey Canyon, Lyonesse” and “Discontinuity”) break out of this framework through greater allotments of vigor. The ensuing package is rather sleepy but charms as music to get lost in, imbued with a relaxing vibe and entrancing lyricism from frontman David Morris.

Thematically, this album is all over the place, Morris’ thoughts dancing between pondering of roads not taken, calamities both environmental and personal, weird dream logic, and flitting moods of sorrow and good humor, but remain consistently evocative and inviting. It’s easy to pinpoint highlights (“Again, Again” is deeply moving, for one) but every song brings something to the table, and closer “Curse is Broken” gives a wonderful kiss-off with its remarkably grand sense of rustic elegance - it would be a fitting soundtrack to some cinematic portrayal of a majestic clifftop vista. All in all, Basic Country Mustard possesses a special sauce (or should I say, condiment) which is challenging to articulate, but that’s part of its magic - Red River Dialect has always been delightfully hard to pin down with precision. Welcome back.

8.0/10