Diluvia

For their second album, Freelance Whales have expanded and refined the atmospheric eccentricities of their debut, Weathervanes. On Diluvia, the Queens, NYC–based quintet creates long stretches of widescreen grandeur, along with more compact, hook-laden tracks aimed at the mainstream. Acoustic instrumentation fuses with electronica to suggest realms at once primal and futuristic. The album’s tunes are loosely interconnected by a space-travel theme, as well as by a spiritual undercurrent suggestive of Sufjan Stevens and Grizzly Bear. “Locked Out” and “DNA Bank” typify the Whales’ fondness for pastoral soundscapes, with their dreamy synthesizer washes and enraptured vocals. Judah Dadone’s high tenor vocals bring a Fleet Foxes–like quality to billowing tracks like “Aeolus” and “Red Star,” while Doris Cellar shines as lead singer on the effervescent “Spitting Image” and the graceful, Asian-tinged “Winter Seeds.” A hint of ‘70s-style soft rock creeps into the luminous flow of the closing number, “Emergence Exit.” Beneath Diluria's ethereal surface is a keen collective intelligence that spans disparate musical genres with ease and suggests visions of worlds beyond our own.