The
Bar/None
-issued debut long-player from the Hudson Valley-based indie pop unit named after a famed 1936 sculpture by surrealist Meret Oppenheim,
Breakfast in Fur
isn't nearly as impenetrable as its fanciful namesake would suggest, though they do spend a great deal of time with their collective heads in the clouds.
Flyaway Garden
, a reference to visual artist and bandmember
Kaitlin Van Pelt
's mixed-media works exhibit of the same name, offers up a winning mix of shimmery, Catskills-inspired experimental indie folk-rock and lightly shoegaze dream pop that falls somewhere between the
Cocteau Twins
, the
Magnetic Fields
,
Panda Bear
, and
Lush
. The gently propulsive "Shape" sets the tone, pairing a twinkly, echo chamber piano lead against a sumptuous wash of chugging guitars and cavernous percussion, with co-lead vocalist and founder
Dan Wolfe
's melodious yet tentative croon soaring above. The evocative "Portrait" and "Lifter" adopt a similar tone, eschewing
Wolfe
's voice for
Van Pelt
's more ethereal delivery, wrapping both songs in gossamer strings of frosty, north country-inspired ambience. This penchant for sonic ephemera runs throughout the album's relatively brief, 35-minute runtime, and it's especially true of its latter half, with tracks like "Ghum," "Sun Catcher," "Cripple Creek Ferry," and the airy, wordless title cut existing in a sort of bucolic, semi-overcast vacuum. It's hardly an unpleasant experience, as
always feels in command of the moment, and the largely unassuming
, which is as hard to pin down as it is strangely comforting, demands a little bit of patience from the listener. Whether that's too much to ask in the increasingly attention span-deprived 21st century, is up for debate. ~ James Christopher Monger