Indiscretions

It’s easy to say that Achille Lauro’s Indiscretions is all over the place, and that’s because it is: The Denver group happily tackles everything from jazz to melancholic indie to glimmering intervals of electronic rock. Opening track “Friends War” channels The Lonesome Crowded West-era Modest Mouse with soaring, watery guitars and a sprawling Old West tenor. The feeling continues on the soulful “No Brakes,” a track rife with jazzy, dramatic horns and a chorus of echoing backup vocals. Achille Lauro has a knack for wordplay—akin to early Soul Coughing—as heard on “Wisdom Of Gravity,” a song that turns meaningful lyrics into its own instrument. The band members breathily sing-speak in unison, calling up cryptic images of “indigent grandfathers with crying hands” in a seductive cadence.

For the most part, it all works. Frontman Matt Close’s booming, emotive voice and the band’s consistently interesting instrumentation keep the layering of styles cohesive. But the album isn’t without some derailing: “Unicorns And Consent” forces fuzzy, electronic beats and manic sing-shouts on mish-mashed imagery, and though the song is somewhat catchy and intriguing, it feels out of place.

The record is strongest in its second half, with contemplative tunes like “Summertime” and the similarly introspective “Unrivaled In Class,” which builds up expressive vocals over a rich haze of electronic rumblings. At just seven songs, Indiscretions covers a lot of subject matter very quickly, and though not all of the chances that it takes work out perfectly, the release remains playfully experimental and imaginative.