With guests including Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold and Taylor Swift, a gentle, often serene second LP of mellow indie-folk by the band formed by The National’s Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver. The band name is inspired by the nickname for the very successful 1970s Cincinnati Reds baseball team. Other guests include Sharon Van Etten, This Is the Kit, Anaïs Mitchell, making a stellar lineup of intelligent, sensitive voices and contributors, the music is mostly slow-paced, piano-based and introspective, reflective and wistfully emotive and melancholy, from opener Latter Days with Anaïs Mitchell to the wonderful Phoenix where she is joined by Pecknold. Dessner’s musical association with Swift begins on Birch, where mostly does backing vocals, but takes the lead on the single Renegade. Hutch is another slow, country-ish standout with Van Etten, Lisa Harrigan and Shara Nova, as well as the bubbling June’s A River with This is The Kit and Ben Howard. Hoping Then, has clever arrhythmic strumming and lovely duetted vocals, and the more conventional acoustic The Ghost of Cincinnati, also with just Dessner and Vernon, has shades of classic Simon and Garfunkel. Vividly bright and beautiful. Out on Jagjaguwar / 37d03d.
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