Cape May

From Flemish Eye, the label that graced us with Chad Van Gaalen's phenomenal Infiniheart, comes another beautifully diverse set of well produced folk rock mini-epics. Fronted by singer/songwriter Clinton St. John, Central City May Rise Again spends its ten tracks balancing stark folk pop with a series of builds and full-band climaxes — from noise bursts to subdued post-rock — without fully committing to either extreme. Brief overture "Thing (Summer in 6/4 Time)" is the record's most compact, quickly blossoming into a triumphant sing-along, but most of what follows bears the marks of a band pushing themselves beyond their genre's more comfortable confines, resulting in a record too brooding to fully take in with a single spin. Though consequent listens reveal a few clear misses, Central City relentlessly hits back with a solid hook ("Bullmarket Frenzy"), clever arrangement ("On Sunprinted Thumbs") or even a simple, memorable drum pattern (the otherwise lulling, Radiohead-esque "Address the Royal We") to make the trip through St. John's enveloping, mythical tales more than worth the effort.