Leave Me Out of This

There's always room for elegant and melancholic guitar pop in this life, and Fiel Garvie makes the most of it. Anyone ever taken by the wistful beauty of early Drugstore, Opal, and Mazzy Star will want to investigate the U.K. group's second full album, with much of the same combination of hushed drama, deceptively strong arrangements, and a healthy dose of third album Velvet Underground inspiration. A lot of this is down to lead singer/guitarist Anne Reekie, whose slightly husky semi-whisper is instantly mood-setting in the best way. Balanced against the carefully restrained tension courtesy of the full group, it's a killer combination, and singer and band work together in striking ways — consider the careful interplay of overdubbed vocals on "Got a Reason" leading into a final climax and echoed drum clatter or the effortless blend on "Caught On," both trancelike and genuinely catchy. A song like "I Didn't Say" threatens to completely rock out but never does, instead building up the arrangement in quiet waves, while "Talking a Hole in My Head" is almost a refracted take on both a quick new wave number and a blast of motorik turned shadowy and mysterious. Moments like the spooky introduction to "Reeling as You Come Around Again," one guitar quietly playing a lead figure as two more swirl around in the background like lost ghosts, and the queasy up-down guitar in "There You Go" just add to the album's compelling beauty. If it perhaps gets more and more of a piece by its conclusion, Leave Me Out of This is still a welcome, quiet gem of an album that deserves wider attention.