Hearts
On their fourth album, atmospheric art-country act Court & Spark further refine their moody twang. More than ever, they sound tasteful and literate, like some dream collaboration between M. Ward and Calexico, or American Music Club with Morricone. At times it's a tad predictable, almosttooerudite, but when your formula works this well, why change it? "Ballad of Horselover Fat" pays homage to the protagonist of Philip K. Dick's heady novelValis, while the gorgeous and lazy "We Were All Uptown Rulers" references the Meters and instantly sounds like some song you've heard before on the AM radio, though it's not. The band really stretches out on the album's sweet, genre-recombinant instrumentals: "The Oyster Is A Wealthy Beast" matches Van Dyke Parks-y banjo plocks with an organ that sounds lifted from theRushmoresoundtrack and these smooth, graceful cello lines. Like the rest of the album, it totally works, almost despite itself.--Mike McGonigal