Elected

Blake Sennett’s second album with his side project, the Elected seems to have been drowned out by the ruckus surrounding Rilo Kiley band-mate Jenny Lewis’s feverishly celebrated solo debut. That’s a shame, because Sun Sun Sun is a pleasant little sparkler of an album. Its airy melodies and vocal harmonies form a patina of quaintly charming optimism and set a tone as relentlessly chirpy as the birds twittering on the opening track. But songs that might have sounded a little too consistently jaunty to remain engaging are rescued by instrumental experimentation and a murky emotional undercurrent. The cheerful jangle of Sennett’s guitar is fortified by piano, accordion, horns, harmonica, vibraphone and the saucy slide of lap steel. And Sennett’s tendency towards melodic preciousness (the most notable and obvious example of which is found on the track titled "Beautiful Rainbow”) is mitigated by often bitter lyrical content, which references mean drunks and faded love affairs.