Clogs

If light pop operetta (poperetta?) isn't your cup of tea try easing into this fifth Clogs album thusly: start with "The Last Song," a somewhat madrigal affair with bassoon, finger picked acoustic guitar and weary guest vocals by Matt Berninger. You'll be reminded the Clogs run parallel to the National, with that band's Bryce Dessner on guitar. Then skip up to " We Were Here," a Sufjan Stevens guest vocal performance that adds a little banjo to Padma Newsome's sublime chamber compositions. The trickiest part might be the female vocals, provided by My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, on roughly half of the tracks. Where her guest turn on last year's Hazards of Love by the Decemberists pitted her against hard rock skronk, here she soars acrobatically above the light fantastic. If you're not on board at this point, repeat steps one and two. Still nothing? Wait for the new album by the National, I guess.