Music for listening to while you ride your horse through the desert into the sunset.

Northern Arms‰’ self-titled debut plays like a soundtrack to a western blockbuster with an indie-rock twist. The album opens up with “Warm Springs Georgia‰” and “Ninety and Nine‰Û, songs that sound straight out of the score to a Clint Eastwood movie.

They then move into more indie-rock territory with “What You‰’ve Got On‰Û, but still retain their twangy, mysterious sound. The album then rides back into cowboy territory on “Let the Water Come Down‰Û, a slow song layered with trumpets, xylophones, and all of the sadness of a cowboy far away from home, camping out on a rock formation in the desert of the American West, longing to see his family and find a way to provide for them.

Though the West has been won and the cowboy no longer what he once was, Northern Arms‰’ eponymous album pays homage to those gone, but not forgotten from the mythos of the Wild West.

RIYL: Buck Owens, Bob Nolan, Ian Tyson
Recommended Tracks: 1, 5, 6