Ends of June

Battling Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start for primacy in the Worst Band Name Ever Sweepstakes, British alt-folkies Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love at least have them well beat as a band. Ends of June is a genuinely terrific album, a collection of 12 heartfelt, largely acoustic, quiet bedroom pop songs that does in fact sound kinda like a cross between Low, the La's and Love, although to be fully descriptive, their name would also have to mention Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel and Sebadoh. The heart of the band, singer and lyricist Kelly Dyson, clearly has been having a rough time of it, as these dozen songs depict the unraveling of a romance in clinical but never mawkish or self-pitying detail, and the rest of the collective, led by his multi-instrumentalist brother Ellis Dyson, fill in the moody, semi-slowcore tunes with acoustic guitars, banjo, clarinet, keyboards and percussion. Fans of the U.K. indie stalwarts the Trembling Blue Stars will find a similar blend of heartache and D.I.Y. elegance on Ends of June, and there's nothing here that wouldn't instantly appeal to any fan of Elliott Smith's later albums.