Everest: Ghost Notes (Vapor/Elite)

We can make this easy, a kind of tick-the-boxes thing: this LA band of indie.rock-cum-alt.folk people are signed to Neil Young's label (yes, they have a slice of his brittle and stuttering guitar solo-style), have performed alongside or been in bands with John Vanderslice and the Watson Twins (Elsewhere favourites), Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, and they sometimes nod towards mid-period Wilco.
If any or some of those references mean something to you then you've probably just been informed of an album that will command considerable stereo time because it doesn't give itself up on a first or even third listening.
But those influences/references will also pull it back a notch for many, and only when they strike out on a more original path (about a third of what's here) do they sound entirely convincing.
That said, as you can tell they have got through more than three listenings at my place so . . .