März

März, the German duo of Ekkehard Ehlers and Albrecht Kunze, opened its first album with a short loop of Nick Drake's "From the Morning," nailing down its aesthetic -- yearning, melancholic, Romantic with a capital "R" -- in a single stroke. On its new record, the band leaves behind the samples but continues to explore the same mood via delicate acoustic instrumentation, pop song structures, and hints of clicks and thumps cribbed from dubby minimal techno; it all swirls together to form the perfect soundtrack for your inner teenager, prone to fits of brooding and swooning.

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More About

• Albrecht Kunze
• Ekkehard Ehlers
• Nick Drake

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The key word here is excess: Despite the album's modest materials -- glockenspiel, mandolin, banjo, quirky computer whirs -- Ehlers and Kunze spin them into dense configurations bristling with texture and bursting with tone color. Over it all, Kunze's husky voice sings paeans to eternity, belying the group's seasonal theme (März means "March," though the album's sound is as autumnal as it is springlike). By far the most affecting tune here is "The River," which weaves a five-minute dreamscape of acoustic guitars, slide guitar, and trombones under Kunze's heartbreaking ode to homecoming. As in all of März's songs, a chill wind lurks beneath the warm tones, and all you can do is turn up your collar and go with the gusts.