Holding On To Brighter Days

Mostly good, often mellow, poppy indie rock with very clear female vocals. Maria Christopher's voice sounds a lot like Lynn Cannfield of the overlooked 80's band Area. Somehow they manage to make virtually every song work. They've actually been on Relapse off & on for awhile. Btw, this originally was released by the band in 2005 by Moist Music and reissued by Relapse this year.

((((1)))) Shimmery guitars, violin, a slow build up eventually gets sort of loud.
(((2))) Strummy, quiet and introspective.
((3)) Good Trip-hop beat with learning towards repetitious pop formula. Way too much chorus.
((((4)))) Sultry, sad ballad with soft, pattering beats.
((((5)))) Slow, 1-2 beat with minimal guitars and very nice vocals. Gets a bit louder towards the end.
(((((6))))) Poppy with modern beats and "string section" effect on the keyboards. Really catchy & pretty. Probably a good makeout song.
((((7)))) Sparse and spacious piano ballad later gets loud resonating. Normally this sort of things falls flat but Ms. Christopher's voice nails it.
(((((8))))) Basic instrumental of chords strummed through the clean channel. Nice.
((((9))) Choppy beat & chords that moves from the mid-level to the loud. Not far from PJ Harvey or Lush without the guitar haze.
(((10))) Really long, languid with pleasant vocals and guitar sound. The guitar in the last half sounds like Isis or Explosions in The Sky.