JAGJAGUWAR
A step-up in ambition on album four from Nova Scotia’s Nap Eyes. Recorded at Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond studio, Nigel Chapman’s meandering sketches have been whittled down to charming indie-folk songs of high calibre. Chapman’s laconic vocals, all extended vowels and Dylan-isms, bring to mind Kevin Morby, particularly on the exultant Primordial Soup, Chapman standing on the rocks whipped by the ‘salt breeze’, pondering life’s big questions. Guitarist Brad Loughead’s effects-heavy guitar is deft and inventive throughout, notably on the lazily contemplative Mystery Calling. Later, he cuts loose thrillingly on the seven-minute Real Thoughts , while on playful takedown Mark Zuckerberg Chapman wonders whether the Facebook uberlord is in fact a ghost. Things move slowly in Nap Eyes’ world and that’s something to cherish.