Review: Man Plus Building There’s a Lot of Beauty, Sometimes

Do not believe the coy hesitancy implied in the title of Man Plus Building’s second album. There’s a lot of beauty throughout. Nor should you really believe there are only nine tracks. Each song is built of a multitude of musical notions that rotate in and out like district volleyball champs. The opening track, “This Is the Last Time We Will See This,” alternates between a daydream shuffle and an edgy hyperkinesis.

The sonic palette Man employs here is a lot more refined than on its debut, Because My Name Is Lion…—a record that made our “Most Intriguing Albums” list last year. The songs seem more content, more focused on the development of sonic ideas. This is a landscape of music rather than train cars of songs running through one.

On “Recognizing Important Moments” and “Never to Surrender Aberration,” the song structures are built on murmuring repetitions, soothing to the verge of being lullabies, and creating a release from more complicated melodies like “Distance Means Nothing” and “Leaves.” The title track serves as a summary of the record, starting with a metronomic acoustic figure that gets slowly swept up in the rippling grandeur of mature songwriting.

Man Plus Building’s first album was a succession of hooks; this one focuses on the bounty caught by them. myspace.com/manplusbuilding

Essential Tracks: “This Is the Last time We Will See This,” “Leaves,” “ There’s a Lot of Beauty, Sometimes”

Recommended if you like: Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, when the crickets and frogs really get going right after sunset