This is the fourth album by Lea Thomas, who is originally from Hawaii but now lives along the Hudson River in New York. This is the only album by Thomas that I have heard, so i cannot speak for her older material.

THomas sings and olays guitar, and on this album, she is joined by two other guitarists, Nico Osborne and Jeremy Mendicino, as well as bassist Brendan Mulvihill and drummer John Thayer.

Thomas is a sort of folk singer – think hushed voice, delicate melodies, picked guitar. But adding the band makes the music a lot more complex. The songs build slowly, with three layers of guitar as well as the rhythm section.

The layering of instruments here is what interests me in this record. Lots of people make delicate tunes, and indeed Thomas does seem to have a good voice, but the songs grow, layer by layer, adding up, growing until they seem dense.

The end result reminds me more of slowcore bands like Damon & Naomi, Low, and Codeine. The songs those bands created started from a simple place and grew in fascinating ways. Thomas is doing stuff very similar here and I, for one, welcome it.

The first track here is called The Gift, and it sets up the template for this album. I like the one guitar layer droning underneath it all.

But it is on the albums second track, We Must Be In Love that we really see what Thomas and company are up to. This is a seven minute song, building slowly into a roaring yet slow drone, her voice forceful, the guitars in layers grinding away. It is a really beautiful track.

The title track comes third, and in this tune Thomas builds up her voice from almost a whisper to a forceful quiet roar, and then suddenly the electric guitar comes crashing in, western drone with clattering percussion. This reminds me of Myssouri, instrumentally.

This pattern repeats for the four remaining songs on the record. Bauhinia features some nice spacious drumming. River Runs Through Us has a fun electric guitar bit at the end, while A Thousand Leaves builds to a roaring drone. And the final track, You Belong To No One features a guitar part that reminds me of Knife in the Water.

A beautiful record. Thomas and her collaborators have made something very beautiful here, a record to reward those of us who enjoy slow, growing tunes.