Chamber-poppy emo, or demented British elevator music? You pick the track. Ranges from disarming and charming to lame and shlocky. FCC-clean.

Track 1: *Chamber poppy, with strings, muted brass, piano and chimes. Sort of a gilded age feeling. Intro.
Track 2: *Calmly swinging, with husky whispered confessional vocals. Piano, guitar, brushy percussion. Starts out with a resolution: “I’ve got to change the way I’m livin’ / Give up the fags, fast food and the women.” But emerges with a surprisingly upbeat message: “I don’t need anything but love.” Whistling. Bouncy beat reminds me of Sesame Street anthems.
Track 3: **Cheerful acoustic guitar strumming and hummy backup vocals set against deliciously depressing lyrics: “If you don’t hate me yet I’m sure that you will.”
Track 4: Bouncy Johnny Cash-like beat set against ominous chimes. Synthesizer imitates legato alto flute and piano melody in succession. Builds in intensity. Instrumental. Ends a bit suddenly.
Track 5: Awful new age sound with heavy bass. Kenny G-esque muted brass makes things extra-cheesy. Vocals are submerged under repetitive Backstreet Boys beat. Funky guitar riff. Ugh. He should stick to the chamber pop.
Track 6: Gentle piano chords. Female vocals: “But baby the bruises you gave me.”
Track 7: Sounds a lot like Sweet Jane, but cheesier. Male vocals. Generalized astronomical yearning: “Turn on the sun again.”
Track 8: Sparse piano. Instrumental.
Track 9: Sesame Street sounds again. Fake clarinet and happy brushed percussion. “I’ve always like daisies.” How many words can we rhyme with daisy? Hmm…crazy…lazy…gave me…save me. Wait…those aren’t rhymes! Cool quiet interlude where the singer whispers about urban history against the clarinet.
Track 10: Autumn leaves, trees. Simon and Garfunkel-like male vocals. Piano, fake flute. Happy guitars. “There’s somethin’ beautiful around the corner.” But it’s not this song.
Track 11: Electronic beat reminiscent of bad 80’s music. Chimes. Nice husky vocals, like a low-rent Leonard Cohen. Middle atmospheric section with birdsong, segueing into lounge lizard cool jazz. Weird.
Track 12: *Nice ragtime piano. Bright Eyes-type male vocals. The little white birdies will never come, not even when you’re dying.
Track 13: *Distant production values. Piano and drums. Didgeridoo. Sweet!
Track 14: *Happy strumming. Brit-emo. Male vocals. “I dreamed you were a boy and I was a girl.”
Track 15: Vaguely country-and-western guitar starts on stereo left only. Beatles-style vocals. Sunny music, sad lyrics. ☹
Track 16: Sad British emo with quiet organ and drums, about the singer’s own funeral.

-Kathryn