Fragile indie-rock from Seattle singer-songwriter Mike Hadreas. The follow-up to his well-received 2010 debut, this mature finely-crafted release establishes him as much more than the Sufjan Stevens knockoff many wrote him off as. For fans of Michigan, and Illinoise! as well as Cat Power and acoustic Thom Yorke. Two thumbs up. FCC CLEAN

1. Quiet piano intro with great orchestral swells. Takes about 10 seconds to really get going. *2. Fragile, downtemo acoustic ballad with a smoky nostalgic atmosphere. Nice haunting piano riffs. *3. Midtempo, almost anthemic with beautiful lyrics and ghastly mid-tempo vocal backups.
4. Floaty, airy piano ballad. 30-second droney outro. *5. Bright and powerful yet confessional. Strong chords and a great patchwork of instrumentation.
6. Muddy piano and a slow, crawling pace. Pained. *7. Catchy piano riffs, great vocal range. Excellent LOUDquietLOUD dynamics. 8. Dark, dense, swollen. Layered vocals for an extra dramatic effect. 9. Sparse tinkly piano and slow vocals. A surge of percussion. A bit too Volkswagon commercialy for me.
10. Slow, aching, minimalist with layered vocals for a ghosted effect. 11. Slowly churning drone and lo-fi vocals. A bit of Sandwell District percussion in there as well. 12. Outro. Extra deliberate and gentle.