The Heligoats

When a singer-songwriter has a "band" name like The Heligoats, nasally vocals, and a roundabout approach to words, he risks getting lost behind the eccentric trappings and not always reaching his audience. Central 'goat Chris Otepka (formerly of the band Troubled Hubble) has gotten better and better at avoiding this fate: The songs on his 2010 album, Goodness Gracious, bloom outward to embrace the listener, making their tangled centers a little easier to relate to. Sure, tracks like "Heat Vents" can come on a little too frantically, but Otepka and an increasingly full-sounding band focus more on suspense than spazzing, pairing a little introversion with a grand buildup of bleary harmonies and guitars on "Rubber Stopper" and "A Guide To The Outdoors."

Updated 12/16/2010