Right Now! is the latest album from The Third Mind, a superlative psychedelic rock quintet that leans heavily on improvisation and looks to the 1960s for the bulk of its material. Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Dave Alvin and Camper Van Beethoven bassist Victor Krummenacher co-founded the group. Filling out the lineup are Counting Crows guitarist David Immergluck; drummer Michael Jerome, who has toured with John Cale and Richard Thompson; and singer/songwriter Jesse Sykes.

The band recorded this CD the same way it made its previous albums: quickly, and without preconceptions, discussions or rehearsals. The songs, each the result of only a few takes, include Jesse Colin Young’s “Darkness Darkness” (originally recorded for the Youngbloods’ Elephant Mountain); Richard Fariña’s “Reno, Nevada”; Elizabeth Cotten’s “Shake Sugaree,” in a version that recalls Fred Neil’s cover; Pharoah Sanders’ “The Creator Has a Master Plan”; the traditional “Pretty Polly,” in a reading based on Judy Collins’ rendition; and Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites’s “Reap What You Sow.” You’ll also find one new original, a dreamy Sykes/Alvin co-write called “Before We Said Goodbye.”

Sykes’ quavering, captivating vocals enrich the entire album, as does the instrumentation, which often sounds redolent of the work of outfits such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. Like the Third Mind’s two previous studio LPs and a live set that came out earlier this year, Right Now! is a must-hear release.

The album is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.

Related: Our review of the Third Mind’s live album