Noah and the Whale - Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down

After seeing this band perform, I came into this review with a bit of bias: The band takes the stage in matching vintage-store garb (think the look of Sufjan Stevens, Danielson or a Wes Anderson flick on the cheap), and the only lyrics I could pick out were completely inane (sample chorus: “It was fun, fun, fun/When we were drunk”). In short, I was ready to dis the Whale's debut. Unfortunately for my more misanthropic urges, I found instead quite a gem of a folk-rock LP. There are melodies here, with their nice touches of brass, that linger long in the mind, and Charlie Fink’s vocals recall a baritone version of Jeffrey Lewis, more bent on singing than storytelling. While tracks on Peaceful, sometimes jump off the twee deep-end (as in Five Years Time), when the band’s warm-and-fuzziness isn’t quite as overt - see Shape of My Heart - the album shines beyond any shallow preconceptions. Even if they do go overboard on those soppy paens to the L word. [Jason Morton]