Flare

The follow-up to Terrapath, the bands debut album, Flare finds prog-, math, and jazz-rock-injected indie rockers Plantoid pushing their shape-shifting sound in even more directions. It was again produced by sometimes live member Nathan Ridley, who helped them both stretch their stylistic palette and settle down their tendency toward abrupt changes, instead staying with moods for a little while longer. This has resulted in some lengthier track times, with four of the nine songs here passing the six-minute mark. It has also contributed to spacey, atmospheric entries like the daydreamy "Slow Moving," whose elongated, sustain-suffused design doesnt feel the need to burst into a more uptempo jam. A song like "The Weaver" is relatively reserved and airy as well, but makes room for intricate percussion and a funky, meandering bassline while singer Chloe Spence delivers echoey phrases like "Its too risky" and "Im not going" several octaves above. These songs contrast hard-rocking ones like opener "Parasite," which includes a floatier midsection but remains rooted in complex time signatures, and "Ultivatum Cultivation," which almost manages to be catchy thanks to its syncopated guitar riffs and steady drumming carrying listeners through trippy swells of haze and echo. Elsewhere, tracks like "Good for You" and "Daisy Chain" unfold in episodic, even more unpredictable ways, with the former passing through harp-like pastoral settings, angular indie, muscular rock, and druggy art rock within a song. This unpredictability is either a feature or a bug depending on individual taste, but for those who are open to taking the ride -- sharp turns, slow climbs, loop-de-loops, and all -- it rewards with inventiveness and nuance. ~ Marcy Donelson