Althaea [LP]

Mystery seems to come naturally to Trailer Trash Tracys. After the release of their intriguing debut album Ester, they disappeared, then resurfaced five years later as the duo of Suzanne Aztoria and Jimmy Lee. With Althaea, the pair move farther away from conventional dream pop and toward a sound that shimmers like a mirage. Along with adding more synths to their music, they incorporate sunny elements that span Les Baxter-style exotica, Jan Hammer's music for Miami Vice, Filipino carnival music, and gamelan into a lush sound that's delightfully tricky to pin down. "Eden Machine" proves Aztoria's voice is as glorious as ever while its glistening arrangement embodies synthetic seduction, a feat echoed by "Siebenk?s" and the majestic "Kalesa." It all makes for a more cohesive listen than Ester's eclectic sampling -- the closest thing to an outlier here is "Money for Moondogs," a Latin folk-pop confection that borrows from the '60s instead of the '80s. Occasionally, Althaea's songs aren't quite as compelling as the beguiling vocals and arrangements, although it takes a certain skill to turn a lyric like "Strange entity brings heavy rain" from "Gong Gardens" into a memorable hook. Like more traditional dream pop bands, the sensual pleasure of the music is at the forefront, and Trailer Trash Tracys deliver plenty of it with "Casadora"'s intricate melody and the mother-of-pearl ballad "Singdrome." By expanding their horizons on Althaea, Trailer Trash Tracys have become an even more singular act. ~ Heather Phares