If you frequently accompany music with the Windows Media Player visualizer, then we have the album for you. For the first time, The Album Leaf—usually, a moniker for Jimmy LaValle and his laptop—have employed a full live band, and the results pay off. “Until the Last” builds around hopeful violins, swirling piano and a glitchy electronic backbone. “We Are” revives the ghost of The Postal Service, with LaValle waxing romantic over a distorted drumbeat and droning synthesizers. “Blank Pages” is scintillating MacBook music, somewhere between Thom Yorke’s solo work and Boards of Canada. This is textbook headphone fare, an unobtrusive album that’s more revealing with each successive spin. Best served with chamomile tea and a sprinkle of Valium.
This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2010.