Tin Star Orphans - Yonder (Sparks Music) The movie ‘There Will Be Blood’ had generally rave reviews. The key point seemed to be the opening sequence in which no dialogue was spoken for the first few minutes before the film allegedly burst into action. The debut from Tin Star Orphans is reminiscent of this. The opening track, ‘Juvenile Haul’ builds up the tension by being a six minute instrumental before bursting into ‘Slack-Jaw’. The difference between Yonder and the Academy nominated movie is that the album really does burst into life at this point, making the wait more than justified. In fact it does more than that. Every track on Yonder is an absolute gem, from start to finish. Sure, it’s Americana but it is stunningly brilliant Americana. It’s amazing to think that these Canadians were not signed until December of last year. The real zenith is hit in the middle of the album as the fantastic ‘Chinese New Year / I Got You’ (which moves from a lamenting anthem into the Travelling Wilburys classic and back again) transits into the tiny ditty ‘I Miss You’ and then onto ‘Farmer’s Pants’ via a cover of ‘Plastic Jesus’ from the movie ‘Cool Hand Luke‘. It is here that you can really see Tin Star Orphans hitting Kings Of Leon type stadium heights. The album finishes as it began with another six minute instrumental which just begs for Yonder to be played all over again. A contender for alt. country album of the year, if not the album of 2009. www.tinstarorphans.com Michael B. Next