Personnel: Sophie Trudeau (vocals, whistling, violin, melodica, organ, xylophone, percussion); Stephen McBean (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, organ, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, percussion); Megan Boddy, Rachelle Reath, Emily Milliken, Jesse Sykes, Diego de Castillo, Ashley Webber, Amber Webber, Kathryn Calder (vocals); Joshua Wells (acoustic guitar, piano, drums, congas); Tolan McNeil (electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, mandolin); Josh Stevenson (electric guitar, synthesizer, guitar synthesizer); Phil Wandscher (lap steel guitar); Ted Bois (piano, organ); Keith Parry, Keith Parry (drums, percussion); Brad McKinnon, Lyndsay Sung, Cory Gangnes, Lyndsay Sung (drums).

Audio Mixer: John Congleton.

Recording information: Dimension Hatross; Elmwood Studios; The Fifty-Fifty Arts Collective; The Hive, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Photographer: T.M. Bois.

Pink Mountaintops (aka Stephen McBean and friends) generally make albums clearly defined by a big idea. After covering sex on his debut, and the post-9/11 climate of fear and war on AXIS OF EVOL, McBean allows himself to sigh and dream on OUTSIDE LOVE, an album whose unifying sentiment is good lovin'. Foregoing the sinister vibes of its predecessors, McBean revels in the sweet stuff all over OUTSIDE LOVE. He chimes on "And I Thank You" that "(t)onight I'm in love with all the lovers" and on the ebullient "Holiday" he claims "Everyone I love deserves a holiday in the sun" over mandolins, strings, and Dylan-y harmonica.

Another standout includes the leadoff, "Axis: Thrones of Love"--a rousing rewrite of the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey" (itself a rewrite of the Ronette's "Be My Baby")--which continues McBean's practice of pilfering whatever famous lyric he fancies ("How deep is your love?" is the repeated refrain here). Bolstered by his Black Mountain bandmates (particularly Amber Webber, who provides her indelible harmonies throughout the record and takes the lead on "While We Were Dreaming") and many other indie luminaries, McBean continues his run of unabashedly revisionist--and sublimely executed--classic rock.

Pink Mountaintops' previous release, the rather lo-fi Axis of Evol, felt a bit like Stephen McBean's tossed-off side project, but Outside Love sounds much more fully developed, reaching heights every bit as breathtaking as his main band, Black Mountain. The group zigzags through a few disparate styles here, but these changes in trajectory are smoothed into a cohesive whole by the haze of sleepy psychedelia that pervades throughout. They channel barroom country & western on "And I Thank You," while McBean's stunning duet with guest vocalist Jesse Sykes on the title track evokes the haunted, glacial slowcore sound of Low. She's actually one of several enchanting female voices that saddle up with his to create the album's consistently expansive, layered vocals, which fit perfectly alongside the Phil Spector-esque roar of reverb and saturation that frequently emerges. The feedback-laden production is also reminiscent of the Magnetic Fields' 2008 foray into Jesus and Mary Chain terrain, especially on the rollicking "Execution," which pits a rousing melody against sheets of white noise. To accompany the immensity of the sound, melodramatic themes concerning dying for love, living on the edge of desolation, and "angels burning in sin and flame" populate the songs, with the always first-person narration generally reveling in its own destruction. On the other hand, tracks like the harmonica-laden "Holiday" and album finale "Closer to Heaven" sound lyrically ebullient -- at least until you realize that it's only a product of their desperation. For all the drama, though, there's a remarkable sense of grandeur in this material, which comes from a mixture of blissful melodies and deliberate pacing. Album highlight "Vampire," for instance, is downright spine-tingling in its majestic build from a sparse beginning to a soaring coda, concluding with a rousing proclamation of "You can suck out the blood/But you can't kill the heart of my love." What makes Outside Love most compelling is that grim sort of optimism, delivered through a well-crafted sound that is as sedated as it is passionate, and simple as it is profound. ~ Ben Peterson