This Is Where We Are

Melding warm, organic folk sounds into pastoral indie pop—à la Fleet Foxes and The Head & the Heart—this five-piece from Denton, Texas, uses slow-swelling intros and sweeping crescendos that retain a delicate vibe even as they're anchored in sturdy frames of muscular percussion and passionate vocals. Angelic wisps of fingerpicked ukulele and guitar and beautiful, robust vocal choruses drive songs like "Beach Song" and "Our Love" to soaring, sometimes goosebump-raising heights. There's soul-warming harmonizing throughout the collection; Chelsea Bohrer's lone female voice is silken sunshine. Violin parts hum and flutter (courtesy of Bohrer), while accordion, a bowed bass guitar, and piano accompany the strummed instruments. Much of Seryn's beauty is rooted in the simplest, sparest of arrangements; the glittering, fingerpicked acoustic guitar on the first half of "So, Within" is accompanied only by the low, gorgeous bellow of a pump organ and airy harmonies before tambourines and hollow toms kick in. "We Will All Be Changed" has the power of a hymnal, or perhaps a jamboree theme song. It's a glorious debut.