[4/5] If there was one thing you could accuse this gauzy indie-rock band of in the past, is that they wrote great atmospheric pop songs that were impossible to remember a single note of. Even if you listened to their last album, 2004's Fall Back Open, around eight hundred times, hardly any of its repetitive tunes were likely to get stuck in your head. While on that record bandleader Andy LeMaster seemed as if he was merely wallowing in a sea of fuzzy minor chords and programmed synths, on Dark Light Daybreak, he diversifies his band's sound considerably, incorporating taut British Invasion riffs on "Type A," industrial-pop mechanics on "Walls," and earthy R.E.M.-like strumming on "Let Up." Though lifeless songs such as "Estranged" still remind you of LeMaster's yawn-inducing past, the rest of Dark Light Daybreak suggests he should've stretched out like this a long time ago. (SADDLE CREEK) Trevor Kelley
 Official Website: http://www.saddle-creek.com
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