by Bryan ThomasEarly descriptions of January drew widely different comparisons to other bands, some focusing on Simon McLean's somber vocals (one reviewer said they sounded like "Low meets Nick Drake"), but McLean's voice (unlike Drake's husky baritone) is in the upper register, whisper soft in places, closer in feel to the harmonious vocals of Gerard Love of Teenage Fanclub, or Daniel Wylie of their Glasgow-based Poptones labelmates, the Cosmic Rough Riders. While they also share a musical resonance with both of the aforementioned Scot bands, there's also something darker and moodier about this band's songs. Porch-swing slide guitar and ringing 12-string guitars crash in waves of distortion and the kind of guitar-effects exploration heard since My Bloody Valentine's heyday. Like Delta, Mojave 3, Goldrush, and others, they are influenced by spacy canyon rock and trick up their own brand of British desert rock and pretty harmonies with distorti...