Castanets

Anyone looking for something akin to Asthmatic Kitty founder Sufjan Stevens' full-blown orchestra pop will be sorely disappointed by Castanets' sophomore effort. Instead, Raymond Raposa plays "derailed psychedelic country," a spooky, dark-night-of-the-soul kind of Americana that's full of desultorily plucked guitars, marching drum-machine beats, and chaotic keyboard tangles. Lyrically, Raposa doesn't bother with silly little love songs; instead, he reaches for something grander and more abstract. According to the press notes, First Light's Freezeis about war and friendship, although you might be hard-pressed to make that out from the drowsily intoned words, save for "Dancing With Someone (Privilege of Everything)," on which Raposa murmurs, "I wanna get high on something/ Go dancing with someone/ Turn our backs to the battle." In the end, no matter what he's moaning about, Raposa is thoroughly engaging, mostly because he's able to construct a singular world worth climbing into. Much the way Stevens can.