Callers

The most striking aspect of Callers’ music is Sara Lucas’s voice. Often reminiscent of Portishead’s Beth Gibbons’ otherworldly wail, it dominates Fortune, the debut album from the Brooklyn-based band. On opening track "Valerie,” she’s at her most spellbinding, delivering a tale of a woman who makes men lose their memory over sparse acoustic guitar. With a voice like Lucas’s, Callers could easily have made an album full of similarly ghostly songs. It’s to their credit they didn’t and often vary the tone. Boasting a warm, rolling melody, "Rone” is strangely uplifting. Then "Fortune,” with its choppy guitar sounds, is angular and oblique. Although Lucas steals the limelight, Ryan Seaton’s musicianship is also integral to Callers’ sound. The guitarist is equally at home playing gentle classical melodies or, as he demonstrates masterfully on "Debris,” creating soundscapes with heavy effects and unusual chords. Both Lucas and Seaton have performed extensively in other bands. On this mature and compelling record, the depth of their experience shows.