L’Altra — Telepathic

L’Altra’s lushly orchestrated “Telepathic” has a stately quality that impresses until it doesn’t, which is somewhere around track four or five. Then the pop tunes become mush in the brain. There’s nothing bad here, but it all just becomes one big jumble of haunting vocals, dusky piano and hazy atmospheres.

The single, “Nothing Can Tear It Apart,” is much more energetic than the rest of the album. It’s appropriate that the tune is placed toward the front of the set, but it should not be the single. That’s because it’s the best song here, yet not much like the rest of the release. A better promo would have been “When the Ship Sinks Make It Sing,” which is also energetic, but in a much more ethereal way that echoes the rest of the work.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with L’Altra’s “Telepathic.” It’s an average release: pretty while it’s happening, but unmemorable. —Stephen Carradini