Adding Up the Wasted Hours

Hailing from the verdant Northwest, The Lonely Forest make the kind of music that Cloud Cult, The Shins, and Death Cab for Cutie also make: it's clearly rooted in the indie rock scene but offers something bigger, more emphatic, more enveloping. Guitars and keyboards are given equal weight, arrangements are both interesting and hooky, and every tune is imbued with some kind of emotional force that’s controlled in exactly the right ways. John Van Deusen’s vocals are a tad like Ben Gibbard’s and even Steve Malkmus’; they're reedy and casual while digging with an edge. This is The Lonely Forest's fourth full-length album since 2007. It's released on Trans Records, the label run by producer/musician Chris Wallace (Death Cab for Cutie); he also produced. From the soaring “Pull the Pin” to the exciting and forceful “Left Hand Man” (which beautifully showcases the muscular rhythm section), Adding Up the Wasted Hours sure feels like the band is headed into the same spotlight as those aforementioned groups. They’re just making sure they’re ready when they get there.