The Moonlight Butterfly

Emerging from Chicago’s 1990s indie-rock scene, the Sea and the Cake displayed a sense of songcraft that their post-rock brethren either lacked or didn’t care about. The foursome has recorded several fine albums, and has stuck with its original lineup, including frontman Sam Prekop, a singer with an appealing, low-key voice. The band’s jazz-tinged sound has changed little over the years, but 2011’s The Moonlight Butterfly is both fresh and vital. The opener, “Covers,” rides a Krautrock beat courtesy of drummer John McEntire, who also recorded the album. Prekop’s and Archer Prewitt’s guitar and keyboard layerings provide a textured bed for the vocals, and Eric Claridge’s bass delights with its propulsive melodicism. It’s a blissful five minutes. The title cut surprises: somehow this pulsing synth instrumental fits in nicely here. “Up On the North Shore” is super-fine, the sort of offering that would be a hit in a better world, while the soft-rock mellow “Monday” entrances. “Inn Keeping” takes up almost a third of the album, but you would never know it. The lengthy track simply comes off like another one of the band’s catchy and well-crafted songs