All that woodshedding sure paid off for . The Brooklyn-by-way-of-Boston quartet undertook an ambitious one-EP-a-month project in 2006, self-releasing a staggering 58 songs over that time. Despite no label or publicist and the modest arrangements of the material, the blogosphere picked up the PR slack, eventually earning the band kudos from and , among others. ups the ante considerably, reworking ten songs from the EP cycle and two new cuts into lustrous notable for its versatility, clever lyrics, and offbeat instrumentation. The songs suggest a host of touchstones, from the drama of a scaled-back and can't-miss hooks of to -like wordplay and narrative flights a la . Songwriters may not quite scale those heights, but in the hybrid they've come up with something nearly as intoxicating. opens the record with contrasting the Civil War ironclad and sailors' courage with playing on-stage. It's an audacious conceit, but the song's slow-burn build into cascading piano runs, symphonic percussion, and joyous choruses makes it more elegiac than pretentious. That song bleeds into the metronomic guitar riffs and driving beat of setting the table for the diversity that follows. with its infectious bouncing-ball beat and nylon-stringed guitar runs, is surely coming to a Kodak commercial soon, while turns from twangy shuffle to Caribbean-flavored , the marimbas, glockenspiel, and muted trumpet making for a delightful mini-vacation. 's gentle vocal turn on is an effective mid-record change of pace and a rare instance in where you'll find a saxophone and ukulele cohabitating. Even the brief vignette and its oboe/banjo counterpoint is another example of 's imaginative arrangements. Just about the only misstep is a straight-ahead tune more suited to the band's debut, -- it's not a bad song, but the bar's been set much higher everywhere else on . ~ John Schacht