The American Analog Set

American Analog Set

Set Free (Arts & Crafts)

Recorded in three cities over more than a year and witness to the demise of a beloved indie imprint and the band's longtime studio, Set Free is the mostly Austin-based quintet's sixth album, not counting a B-sides gather-all, and it shimmers and sulks, adding a rich dimension to the group's already delicious sound. It'd be easy to rely on the ancient critical trope of "lush soundscapes" to describe Set Free, but it would do this exacting work a grave disservice, eliding the music's murkier tones. The two-part "Immaculate Heart" suite, for example, boasts sinister underpinnings one can't quite put a finger on, but the effect is pleasantly unsettling and reminiscent – of all things – of Imperial Teen's darker work. "Cool Kids Keep" and "Jr" introduce droning keyboard lines that bully the other instruments, Andrew Kenny bitterly canonizing a clique in the former ("The cooler kids'll live forever"), while the latter indulges in a minor-key, Mogwai-esque ramble. The album's most breathtaking track, "She's Half," inspires swaying; it's the kind of beatifically sweet and melancholy song every girl wants written about her. It's elegiac, bringing to mind a bittersweet swan song one hopes is still years away.