The Emotional Rescue LP

Album Review

Taking a slightly different route than on their previously uniformly solid releases, Windsor for the Derby eschews the weighty instrumentals of their past in favor of a mix emphasizing vocals, solemn acoustic guitars, and florescent keyboards. On their fourth album, the minimalist and hypnotic tendencies of their past remain, with Dan Matz and Jason McNeely remaining as the only full-time members of the band. Now walking the line between spacy folk and chamber pop, the arrangements of twinkling guitars and intricately repeated rhythms give the set a much different dynamic than their previous recordings. If that entails that The Emotional Rescue LP is their most accessible release, that isn't to imply that this is a shrewd attempt at commerciality, as tracks like "Mythologies" offer more than a few reminders of their old sounds. Enchanting in a newly cinematic way, moments such as "Now I Know the Sea" and the title track enjoy an emotional intimacy that was not always apparent in their earlier releases. All in all, a release that seems to present a band on the verge of an artistic breakthrough.