Album: All the houses look the same
Artist: Deas Vail
Label: Brave New World
Sounds like: Death Cab for Cutie

Deas Vail’s All the houses look the same has much in common with last year’s treasure of an album from Aaron Sprinkle’s band Fair, which was indie smart and sweetly melodic. Beautiful piano lines play leapfrog with the almost impossibly high-inthe- register vocals, like Keane or Coldplay, with the rest of the band acting as tether ropes. Its aching and yearning sound even tends toward weird Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Despite some minor faults—at times overenthusiastic drums and guitars, a premature fade-out on one song—this is a pretty, grand, intelligent and surprising gem.

Nicks rating: 4/5