Waves

Somewhere between moody early-'70s rock bands — think Jefferson Airplane's followers in particular — and a more current indie rock theatricality is where Waves lies, all the more interesting given that the appropriately named Supercluster themselves are something of a supergroup of their scene, bringing in members from bands such as the Olivia Tremor Control, Deerhunter, Casper & the Cookies, and — above all else — two key members of the stellar Pylon, Vanessa Briscoe Hay and Randy Bewley. The tragic circumstance of Bewley's passing before the album was completed underscores the whole experience as a might-have-been, but the end result is more than just a scene curio and remembrance. There's something lively about the end result that could easily warrant more albums if the surviving members wanted to keep up with it, something at once sprightly and laden with experience in equal, entertaining measure. The understated but often sharply commanding vocals of Hay are worth giving Waves a listen alone, showing that she still has just the right ear for delivery. Hearing the song "Brave Tree" actually being a song about just that — a tree that "tried to touch the stars" — brings things a little too close to twee, but hearing her turn on "Mermaid's Tale" takes things to a level that's at once more playful and melancholy, the peppy music underscoring mentions of shipwrecks and watery isolation. One of the nicer touches throughout Waves comes courtesy of the un-rock instrumentation, for lack of a better term — hearing the joyful clarinet break on "Sunflower Clock," matched with what sounds like a mandolin — but it's both Bewley's guitar work and the complementary spirited additions by performers like Bradford Cox that give Waves its other core point. Elsewhere, the soft, waltz-like lope of "River" and the steady pulse and punch of "Too Many Eights" (perhaps the closest the album gets to Pylon themselves) add to the excellent experience.