CoCo Beware

iTunes Review

CoCo Beware, the 2011 debut by the Brooklyn indie rock quintet Caveman, is a seductively somber and beautifully human-sounding album that plays with equal parts wide-eyed wonder and smoldering self-doubt. “A Country’s King of Dreams” sets the tone with slow, roomy drums that pulse over keyboard drones as acoustic guitars and electric six-string feedback balance each other out. The following “Decide” grooves slowly on a subtly buoyant rhythm that sits back and lets the flowing vocal melodies drive. The guitars on “My Time” resonate coolly with vintage wooden tones that pedal like a Velvet Underground tune. Contrasting this classic New York sound are the Pacific Northwest–style nasal-toned vocals of singer Matthew Iwanusa. Throughout CoCo Beware, he coos with a lullaby-friendly voice; check out “December 28th,” where he sings shadowy harmonies so sublime that they blend in with the accompaniment like another instrument. Those lush four-part harmonies play a pretty big part on Caveman’s debut, most noticeably on the soothing “Easy Water” and the closing dirge “My Room.”