Today's Sounds: Alt-J

Record:

Alt-J, An Awesome Wave (Atlantic/Warner)

There’s a fine line between being enjoyably quirky and just being too smart for your own good, and 2012 Mercury Music Prize shortlisters Alt-J straddle that line without ever consistently sitting in either camp. They’re occasionally sublime, often a little too twee, but it’s the risk you run when you dabble in music big on restrained tension and light on carnal energy.

An Awesome Wave is itself divided into sections: the early part of the record is anchored by hip hop backbeats, the middle is more folkish and the end is imbued with calm, new age minimalism. But underpinning their debut is the same sort of marginally melodic, rhythm-heavy backdrop and gratingly fey (but charmingly weird) vocals that’s made household names out of incredibly boring teen-oriented acts like Bombay Bicycle Club.

Alt-J are a cut above that group, mostly because their songs contort and bend in unexpected ways. Album highlight “Breezeblocks” changes on a dime midway through and suddenly develops a compelling sense of urgency. “Fitzpleasure” contrasts their most immediate guitar riff (on an album largely devoid of them) with fun, nonsensical vocalizing. The songs tend to get more dramatic near the end (to differing levels of success), and they frequently employ the brief a cappella bridge as a way of tying together sectional gaps.

A sign that the group is capable of true greatness comes in the form of the exquisite five-minute epic “Taro,” a vague retelling of the death of war photographer Robert Capa. Whereas on other parts of An Awesome Wave the synth lines and other sonic additions can come across as tacked on, the artificial zheng and strings that pop up feel earned. By the time they hit their final harmonies, you’ll have a good idea of how you feel about their overt cleverness. To their credit, “Taro” feels like a rare moment where the art schoolers aren’t trying to outsmart listeners.

Alt-J headlines with support from JBM at Café Campus (57 Prince Arthur E.) on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 8:30 p.m., $15.50/$18.80

Track:

John Talabot, “Tragedial”

This Barcelona producer, who will soon hit the road with the XX, casts some Balearic magic on this track off a new seven-inch (it doesn’t appear on his latest LP fIN). It’s best consumed at dusk.