Secrets of the Sea

Recorded with all five members in their early 30s, the band isn’t fetishizing the tail end of the 20th century — they’re still living it. That’s not to say Loquat are stuck in the decade, but they unapologetically wear their influences on their sleeves. Singer/guitar player Kylee Swenson’s dynamic inflections coo like The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler or Ivy’s Dominique Durand one second and purr like Homogenic era Bjork the next. But it’s her university studied knowledge of poetry that unveils a mature wisdom you just can’t find in songs of the San Francisco band’s contemporaries. “Harder Hit” opens the album with tastefully produced dream pop and soaring melodies that gently rub against the grain of troubled lyrics musing woefully on an emotionally stunted lover. “Sit Sideways” bubbles and pops with subtle trip-hop trappings like the offspring of The Cardigans and Komeda. The comforting grooves and contagious melodies make for the album’s most danceable song, but the words perfectly communicate the knotted stomach feeling that can only come from the uncertainty of real love.