Loudest Dreams

Following the breakup of the baroque-pop quintet Call and Response, at least five splinter bands were born, including Rubies, Shock, Sorcerer, Antonionian, and Edie Lane. Edie Lane immediately recalls the sound and feel of C.A.R., because it's the solo persona of the band's silky-voiced singer Carrie Clough (who got C.A.R.’s old drummer, Jordan Dalrymple, to provide the rhythms). Loudest Dreams opens with Clough’s elegant inflections casting deep, poetic spells over Heather McIntosh’s moody cello playing, while Dalrymple’s flawless, airtight drumming helps recall moments of Winds Take No Shape–era C.A.R. And even though Clough returned to Athens, Ga., to record these songs with Derek Almstead of Olivia Tremor Control fame, the absence of kitschy Wurlitzer tones and squiggly Moog chirps gives Loudest Drams the matured pop sophistication of classic recordings by Harry Nilsson, Kate Bush, Edith Piaf, and Scott Walker. “What Mother Says” contrasts intricate phrasing with a Victorian nursery-rhyme lyricism. “Amnesia” proves to be the standout, with plodding psychedelic flirtations and heady versification that would make Eleanor Friedberger envious.