The Outlaws is an instrumental band and worked with Joe Meek being their producer and songwriter. Meek wrote all the songs on this album under the name of Robert Duke, as well as writing the liner notes. The two guitars, bass and drums on a Meek recording can sound like it was recorded somewhere on the other side of the moon, yet pretend to be human. Which is ironic, because this is an album that has a theme of the wild west. "Dream of the West" is a concept album, but not one with a narrative, but with a place, a time, and of course, since it's British, more about the cinematic Western than the real west.
If one compares The Outlaws to another band, it will have to be The Shadows. Twangy guitars that are more British sounding than say surf, yet it's almost like scientists studying the surf guitar sound, and somehow getting it wonderfully wrong. There is not one authentic western song on this album. All of the material, written by Meek (Duke) is a western that is imagined than real. It's a beautiful album in the sense that fantasy plays a great role in Meek's world. Yet, I sense he feels that all of it is 'real,' at least to him.
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