Featherweight

Local acoustic folk rock. Tame but urgent songs with a softly organic, proggy compositional style that is more fluid than catchy. Modular flow that generally consists of melodically muffled verses building to anthemic breaks or refrains, then gently giving itself back up into textured, arpeggiated vamps. All songs weigh in at a middling level of energy -- possibly constrained, despite the upbeat percussion, by the acoustic instrumentation of gently picked guitars and bowed bass. Playing is tight and tasteful throughout, though the alt-country vox have a strangely detached, almost amateurish feel (possibly a result of priorities in the production.)

FCC: 11. Picks: All are similar; I liked 3, 4, 7, 9, 12 best

1. 4:51 - Mellow, shifty, and subtly dark.
2. 3:31 - Singsong folk melody with a slight lilt.
*3. 4:58 - Higher-energy brooding rock.
*4. 4:54 - Dramatic and driving, percussive instrumental.
5. 4:23 - Lower-energy ballad with brushed percussion. Straight to next song.
6. 3:20 - Builds from #5.
*7. 4:13 - Odd-time piece with a more-than-usually slippery pulse.
8. 4:52 - Gentle ballad with a psychedelic folk feel.
*9. 3:36 - Catchy hook and a syncopated lyric. 9-sec out.
10. 4:38 - Building, textured instrumental with prominent finger-picking. Cold stop.
11. 3:27 - (FCC) Intro of whispered vox and simple chords give way to uptempo backbeat.
*12. 5:32 - Brooding, urgent chords that float into and out of catchy refrains and pleasant jams.