Beulah: When Your Heartstrings Break

In a year flooded with releases from the Elephant 6 collective—some incredibly ambitious, some dispiritingly dull—it was easy and unfair for a group like Beulah to get lost in the shuffle. The third album from the San Francisco band finds it expanding its lineup along with its sound: The players include no fewer than five violinists, as well as those playing a harp, a tabla, several violas, a french horn, and various other instruments, but Beulah's music never sounds cluttered. Opening and closing with two flawless songs ("Score From August" and the amusingly titled "If We Can Land A Man On The Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart") with scarcely a dull moment in between, this is complex, intricately orchestrated pop done right. Also of note is The Minders, led by British ex-pat Martyn Leaper. The band released an odds-and-ends collection this year (Cul-de-Sacs & Dead Ends) and toured with new members to great acclaim with Elf Power. But last year, The Minders' old lineup quietly released an overlooked little masterpiece, Hooray For Tuesday. As the work of the most unapologetically retro-minded of the E6 bands, Hooray For Tuesday could easily be a lost album from 1966 London. But with songs as good as the title track, "Pauline," "Yeah Yeah Yeah," and "I've Been Wondering," the lack of innovation couldn't matter less. It's looking backward while thinking forward.