Majical Cloudz is Devon Welsh and Matthew Otto, and the songs they showcase here are minimal, soothing, repetitive, self-aware, and yet thoroughly emotive and vulnerable. This project seems like an attempt to lower the walls between artist and listener, to create an intimate musical conversation between the two. Whether or not they always succeed, this is moving stuff. Favorites: 2, 3, 6, 7, 10. No FCCs.

1. (3:10)—Slow, almost incantatory. Vocal loops. “I’m a liar, I say I make music.”
2. *(4:26)—Medium-slow, soft, plodding. Feels like a hymn.
3. *(3:49)—Mid-tempo. The “hit.” Swelling synth strings, skittering beat, really catchy chorus. Hints of Chris Isaak?
4. (4:11)—Slow. Romantic, melancholy. “I’m on stage for you.”
5. (4:13)—Medium-fast. Anxious, danceable but light.
6. *(3:44)—Slow. Trippy, creepy, mournful.
7. *(5:15)—Slow, beatless, chilling, heartbreaking. Welsh jumps into his upper vocal register. “I don’t think about dying alone.”
8. (2:51)—Slow, dreamy. “Illusion, illusion, illusion, illusion.”
9. (3:22)—Slow. Begins with chords on a synth piano, builds slowly.
10. *(3:20)—Slow, beatless. The desolate, dramatic closer. “I don’t want to turn to the Bible.” Ends suddenly.