One Bedroom

Taking a step toward perky pop tunes, Chicago's the Sea and Cake deliver their most charmingly elegant and fully realised effort to date.

Over the course of six albums since 1993, Chicago-based quartet the Sea and Cake have developed and refined their stylish post-rock sound - a tight, jazz-inspired reworking of rock song structures and time signatures.

While their 2000 album, Oui, was noticeably leaner and less improvisational than previous recordings, on One Bedroom the band takes another step toward shorter, downright perky pop tunes.

One Bedroom sounds refreshingly new for a band's sixth record, yet it is not without moments of familiarity. The record feels like a stroll down the finest moments of the band's career, though it is still another step forward into the evolving 'sound' one has come to associate with the band.

The cuffing guitar notes simply woven together, the melodic, propulsive and rhythmic drumming, the swirling sound of synthesisers and the distinct vocals that float in and out fluctuating between lazy delivery and full on falsetto-drawing you in on the records first track. Only to have you completely hooked by it's second.