'The Giant's Lawn' stretches the band's reach, embracing new forms and figures, living corridors and side-quests.

Where past work borrowed from the literate heart of American indie, here, Luke Towart & Co.

investigate earthen psychedelia, off-grid community folk, and highly bookish, antipodean snock.

Wurld Series are back with a new LP of curly rock miniatures and overgrown roadside curios.

There's always been a fantastical bent to Wurld Series' unspooling jaunts - 2021's 'What's Growing' threw a little Canterbury scene in with the Christchurch sound - but The Giant's Lawn goes deeper down the rabbit warren; a boy named frog dreams of escape, established trees are recognized for their contributions to humanity_ "Rearing Wesley" marries schoolboy imagery with golden flushes of Richard Thompson inspired fretwork.

"A Private Life" plays like a field recording of the morning after the carnival - cats yeowl, empty tents billow, gaudy excess sours in the clear light.

British psych-folk lends gentle, omnipresent guidance throughout, but early influences still hit; "Resplendent Fortress", "Lord of Shelves" and "Illustrious Plates" bounce and buckle like Flying Nun faves 3D's; compact vehicles for Towart's Renaissance-era flash broadcasts.

- Matt Hellreigel