Stars Of Track And Field

A Time For Lions

[4/5]

What began as an homage to Belle And Sebastian (who coined the song from which this band took their name) has grown into something more. The Portland, Oregon, trio exchanged their fey chamber pop for a different texture when their bassist departed prior to their second release, 2006’s Centuries Before Love And War. Gilded with electronics of all sorts, their new full-length, A Time For Lions, arrives as a fully realized creature. “The Aviator” casts a ghostly visage built from jangling guitars and Kevin Calaba’s willowy falsetto, while “The Breaking Of Waves” crashes on shore over a surf of keyboards tinkling like a steady flow of raindrops, building ripples upon ripples. It’s pretty evocative stuff swept up in the gossamer down of the arrangements and tugged by the melancholy lyrical undertow. The highlight is the disc’s opening track, “Racing Lights,” which musters a momentum sometimes missing from the winsome wafting arrangements. Yet that’s hardly a complaint. While the tone is a bit glum, the sound is one to be swathed in because misery cries for comfort. (WIND-UP) Chris Parker



GO DOWNLOAD: “Racing Lights”