It's hard not to approve both A Weather's blatant Seinfeld reference and their dainty, co-ed sound dabbling in slow-moving indie pop and vaguely folk elements. But how well the latter can hold up over the course of 11 songs and 51 minutes on Everyday Balloons becomes a latent, innocuous experience when they fail to add any real sort of textural dynamics or otherwise moments of total brilliance; or maybe even that intangible something that kicks it into another gear.

Sure, "Winded" finds a piano prop to push it along with a vigorous pop, and "Seven Blankets" is guided with a gracefulness that's stark. But despite all these little flares and the air of gravity the band seem so natural at injecting, it too often feels a little transparent and bearing feelings only barely beyond mere ineffectuality. You could draw a Swell Season comparison, but the theatricality and more obvious melody certainly is not here. It's not necessarily what makes Everyday Balloons so often feel a little blasé, though.

Granted, the aching slowcore movements of something like the Eisley-esque "No Big Hope" finish a little more real and entrancing. And "Happiness" adds a suddenly dark twist to the album's second half; it's a sudden, jarring change of mood but it serves the record a much-needed turn of emotions. "Giant Stairs" has the most subtle flutter of post-rock atmosphere, even, and the vocal melodies are at their best in seven-minute closer "Lay Me Down"; in the latter, there's finally some buildup and an arc to be had.

Overall, however, Everyday Balloons doesn't fail because it doesn't wish to sensationalize or go by way of gimmickry; in fact, that might be the real death of it. It's merely the frustration one gets from how disenchanted its procedure too often feels.

STREAM
Third of Life
No Big Hope
Giant Stairs