Naomi

With their fourth album, Seattle indie folk rockers the Cave Singers offer up a lively set of tunes infused with a joy and lightheartedness not seen from them before now. The rootsy group made up of ex-hardcore and emo players from bands like Pretty Girls Make Graves and Murder City Devils always kept a little bit of punk edge for even their most rustic tunes with Cave Singers, but with Naomi, that sharpness is all but gone, replaced not with a mellow resignation but a softer sort of excitement. Songs like "Canopy" and "Have to Pretend" are sheer, sunshiny happiness, with major-key melodies floating on top of snaky guitar leads and rolling rhythms. Vocalist Peter Quirk's raspy croon is filled with ambitious hopefulness, brushing his punk-schooled folk vocals with just enough country twang to hint at a happier, relaxed perspective for the singer and the band's sound in general. There have been some developments between the sometimes more haunted, earlier Cave Singers albums and the 12 freewheeling tracks that make up Naomi. 2011's eclectic No Witch saw the band opting for a more electrified sound, blasting apart the more campfire-friendly fare of their first two albums. Naomi leans closer to the earlier sound, but the inclusion of new bassist Morgan Henderson (who also does time as the bassist in Fleet Foxes) adds a depth that wasn't there before. Henderson's tropical, almost noodly bass grooves on songs like "Shine" transform what could be simple folk tunes into a more celebratory thing, pushing toward a far more toned-down version of Paul Simon's Graceland. The upbeat alt-country jangle of "Easy Way" evokes both the most countrified moments of early R.E.M. as well as the bright-eyed innocence of Being There-era Wilco. The band hasn't strayed too far from what made it successful in its beginnings, but with Naomi, they've shifted their energy into producing the aural equivalent of a cloudless summer day. ~ Fred Thomas