Cape Forestier

Chronique

Having gradually expanded and refined their intimate sound across their first four studio LPs -- while charting in the Top Ten in their native Australia with each one -- Angus & Julia Stone reach back across the stylistic approaches of their entire output on their fifth album, the relatively stripped-down Cape Forestier. Whether embracing the more rustic folk mien of earlier material or a modest version of the sparkling atmospheres of 2017's Snow, it's full of affection, nostalgia, and gratitude. Speaking of affection and gratitude, there's even a spare acoustic track called "The Wedding Song" fronted by the pixie-voiced Julia and sure to rank high among first-dance picks ("I'll hear your voice come through the door a thousand times, maybe more/And I'll smile inside to know you're mine completely"). Likewise, "Country Sign"'s title is partly self-explanatory, as it goes on to employ pedal steel, banjo, mallet percussion, and more for dreamy, twangy trip through eternity. "Down to the Sea" is an example of a lusher, more plugged-in song, although its shadowy blues bearing slides in comfortably beside more melancholy songs like "No Boat No Aeroplane," with its reverb-heavy acoustics and harmony vocals; the sunshine pop-tinged title track, with its crooning lead guitar line; and jaunty, harmonic-injected love song "I Want You." Led by Angus, that song essentially makes a three-minute ditty out of a bouncy guitar riff and choruses of "I want you so bad." The 12-song pick-me-up ends on "The Wonder of You," an under-60-second time capsule of an orchestral ballad whose only lyrics are "That's the wonder, the wonder of you." While not for cynics, Cape Forestier should well please longtime fans and romantics alike.

© Marcy Donelson /TiVo