Music such as Rand and Holland’s places the listener on a see-saw. Their second album, Caravans, is the kind of homely, everyday detailed, divergent folk-pop that some will find masterful and others boring. Advocates of the band can highlight their use of instrumental meanderings and the near spoken-word delivery of Brett Thompson’s vocals as reasons for their brilliance. While naysayer’s will scoff at the minimalism of it all; the same qualities that inspired the advocates serving as a sleep-inducing combination of sleeping pills and chamomile tea.

It may seem like this review has its arse cheeks firmly planted on the proverbial fence, but that is not the case. I know what I think about Rand and Holland. But the thing is, that as much as the clamour and cacophony of Mars Volta is likely to polarise people, the subtlety and softness of Caravans will likely do the same to others. If you enjoy the ‘freak-folk’ movement and songs that are typified by mood-driven instrumentation as much as vocals then Rand and Holland will be your sort of band. No doubt about it.

The band’s sound is a hybrid blend of the conciseness of old school songwriting tempered with the soundscapes of contemporary bands à la a beefed up, layered Art Of Fighting or a Sunset Studies-era Augie March. Opening with ‘The Light’, Rand and Holland [Brett Thompson (guitar/vocals) and Stuart Olsen (guitar/drums)] provide an introduction worthy of comparisons such as these; the droning fingerpicking and reflective, soft tone of Thompson’s voice create a musical lullaby that is intermeshed with a country shuffle rhythm, adding a toe-tapping element. The track is buoyant, lifted by a light horn section and its dreamy vocal offering: “An angel appeared/Walked through the door/How’s it been/We’ve travelled for so long”.

‘It’s Alright’ is the other highlight of Caravans, employing similar elements to ‘The Light’ but raising the tempo and shifting towards blues territory. The shuffle is now fuelled by a driving kick drum and bass, and the repetitious, mantra-like delivery of the chorus: “It’s alright,” adds a tense atmosphere to the affirmation. It is in this mood of swirling simplicity that Rand and Holland sound most comfortable, the straightforwardness of their songs illuminated by casual and delicate touches that allow their best qualities to shine bright.

The second element of the Rand and Holland sound is the rock-pop approach of tracks such as ‘Let’s Get Together’ and, to a lesser extent, the pop-glow of ‘Caravans’. The garage-esque tom-tom drums and cheap distortion of ‘Let’s Get Together’ succeeds via its brevity and the wistful ‘Caravans’ is made by a psychedelic glaze and narrative feel. While these songs are important in breaking the mood-driven folk that saturates Caravans, this sound is obviously not the band’s strength, and if forced to rely on lightweight rock they would simply disappear into the never-ending stream of similar sounding bands.

‘The War’ demonstrates another questionable aspect of Caravans, this being the similarity between the blues-stained guitar riff of this track and the preceding ‘It’s Alright’. The clever use of alternate instrumentation (organ in particular) and the abandoned feel of Thomson’s reverb drenched voice somehow manages to redeem the obvious connection between the songs. However, when the final thump of the kick drum dies down in the first half of the nigh on ten-minute epic, we are transported to a world of eerie noise and classical arpeggios, a place that has not  been covered by the album; a calming resolution.

The ambience of ‘The War’ could easily have been the album closer, but before departing, Thompson delivers the fairytale-inspired and piano-fuelled (played by Ned Collette, who appears on eight of the album’s nine tracks) narrative of ‘Beanstalk’. The drifting structure of the song is a fitting conclusion to what has been a meandering journey, the lack of conventional structure in the song suggesting that Thompson, as the songwriter, may move to even greater successes with future efforts.

Caravans balances as partly an ambient mood album and partly an album of simple songwriting. At best, on songs like ‘It’s Alright’, ‘The Light’ and ‘Beanstalk’, the band are amongst the forefront of this whole freak-folk, ambient and experimental  scene that is flourishing at the moment. While it is to Rand and Holland’s credit that they generally play to their strengths, with a little more divergence and a slight tinker to the formula they may be able to raise even the most ardent of naysayer’s from their perch at bottom of the see-saw.