The Sea and Cake

For their seventh studio album, Chicago’s the Sea and Cake have cast aside the convoluted keyboard-heavy sound that mired their last release (2003’s One Bedroom) and returned to the more sparse and stripped-down formula that worked so well on earlier efforts. Everybody’s return to form finds the band tracing its roots, with subtle rock rhythms, gentle nods to Caribbean jazz, Archer Prewitt’s chiming guitars and Sam Prekop’s half-whispered vocals. “Up On Crutches” and “Crossing Line” should inspire long drives on sun-drenched coastal highways. “Coconut” taps the energies of the band’s younger days, while “Transparent” exemplifies the slow-burning closer that is its specialty. It all adds up to a full plate of pleasurable post-rock, the quintessential album for a lazy summer.