3 out of 5

Label: Infectious

Produced by: Charlie Andrew, Mark Bishop

The singles off of alt-j’s debut album, An Awesome Wave, never fail to strike a chord with me: the off-kilter vocals; the dark tone of the melody and lyrics; the sparse, uniquely atonal melody over a strong beat and bassline… they weave a bold line between folk pop and weird pop, managing to be neither too much of either while also coming out the other side of each tune with a completely memorable hook. Those singles are so notable, though, that it creates quite a large disparity between those and the more tame and typical folk entries. These might still have good melodies, and Joe Newman’s unique croon, but it’s all minimalized, and those songs frankly aren’t distinct enough to stand on their own. As such, the album ends up being fractured, and oddly forgettable besides those singles: the thing doesn’t listen like a synchronous experience, and is instead broken up into sections leading up to the hits; mini-albums. This highlights how alt-j’s lyrics are never quite as strong as the vibe (like I remember the sound of the songs, but not their words), and you can then extend that to the overall feeling of the album, which lives on in memory as a solid listen, but I really can’t tell you what songs are on it until you play one.

A positive of this – and a reason I remained a listener past this album – is that it comes across as sincere. alt-j should be an “it” band: a group trying to effect their oddball sound so that the mainstream can nod at how embracing of independent spirits they are. But An Awesome Wave ultimately works because despite it being ephemeral, and flawed in the ways mentioned above, it never feels forced; it is the sound the band wanted to create at the time, and worked to do so. As such, there are certainly consistently stronger acts in the indie folk scene, but that doesn’t mean they’re all as intriguing to follow when they drop new music.