M. Ward

Hold Time

[4.5/5]

The secret to M. Ward’s consistency of output is his honesty. With that ethos in tow, his sixth studio album comes teeming with lush compositions and fluttering melodies. “For Beginners” implodes into a folk sing-along; linked up with the doo-wop ’50s rockers "Rave On" and the sprawling orchestral din of "Stars of Leo," Hold Time exists not simply as a vehicle for the rehash of rock ’n’ roll blueprints, but as the highway on which to drive home his acute pop-rock songwriting. Washed in reverb-heavy thunderclaps of clunky piano and violin, the timbre of Ward’s rasp comes through clean and comforting, even when the instrumentation is sparse, as on the gramophone-hollow "One Hundred Million Years." Incidentally, this album could hold up for precisely that amount of time. (MERGE; mergerecords.com) Ryan J. Prado