Omar Velasco Drops First Album

This is a great album. Lush without feeling over-produced, dramatic without feeling portentous, it’s a strong set of songs that soothe and soar. While in the vein of the galloping kind of folk rock so familiar these days, Velasco embellishes his music with enough psychedelic flourish and emotional depth to make it closer to ’70s acts like Fleetwood Mac and Spirit than his more shallow contemporaries. “Dreamtube” has that timeless, heard-this-somewhere-before quality found in the best pop melodies, and opener “Snowy Water” is beautiful. This is a very confident and well-crafted debut from a Santa Barbaran — it’s hard to believe it’s his first.