Hold on you could be perfect, slow down you might be worth it

´Treble & Tremble´ by Earlimart

On its fourth proper full-length album, California-based bedroom-pop group Earlimart refines its Elliott Smith and Grandaddy-influenced sound into an album worthy of a sun-streaked Sunday afternoon spent under the covers.

Earlimart front man and producer Aaron Espinoza has long been on friendly terms with underground luminaries Jim Fairchild of Grandaddy, producer Scott McPherson and Elliott Smith, who Espinoza said in a news release lived "about 20 feet from his house." It is clear that Smith's violent ending and turbulent life had a great impact on Espinoza personally as he wrote "Treble & Tremble," and Smith's influence courses through the 13 tracks nearly in the understated way that the late indie singer-songwriter honed his own artistic craft. Despite vocal styling and chord changes that immediately invoke Smith, Espinoza and company manage to guide Earlimart to its own voice, something that 2003's two releases, "The Avenues LP" and "Everywhere Down Here," hinted at but failed to fully deliver.

"Treble & Tremble" is essentially a record about love and loss. Like all good treatises on the agony of living, it has its lilting, up-and-down moments. Strangely, and undoubtedly intentionally, the lead track, "Hold On, Slow Down," is a hushed, piano-driven affair that mirrors Espinoza's spot-on vocal mimicry of Smith, and sets the overall tenor of the album. The band never allows itself to get caught up in the mystery of the themes it explores. Instead, the band lets the craftsmanship of its studio time slowly envelop the listener, a la emotional cold fusion. While evocative, Espinoza's vocals are neither obvious nor mired in overreaching artistic darkness. Conscious of the limits imposed by his singing abilities, Espinoza instead filters his voice to good effect instead of conceding defeat like The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle.

"Hold On, Slow Down" also showcases the unobtrusively compulsive production that is Espinoza's watermark, with distorted strings and tape noise filtering in from the top to lap over the hollow vocals. Ironically, the opening affair bookends nicely with the album's second and most accessible number, which any other band would have picked as an opener.

Not until the fourth track does Earlimart settle down to its recognizable formula of distorted electric guitar coupled with Espinoza's breathy delivery and acoustic guitar plus an effortless mixture of loops, synths and effects. This is not to say that Earlimart ever becomes predictable at any point during "Treble & Tremble"'s 43 minutes. Interludes like "808 Crickets" and "The Valley People" are not simply segue between disparate musical statements, but the mortar that holds an entire work together.

Fans of Elliott Smith can rest in the fact that his legacy isn't lost, but instead lives on in new and inventive ways so long as Earlimart continues to tour and record. "Treble & Tremble" is a decidedly slow-burner that takes a few spins to fully reveal it's beauty, but it could embarrass a record by Britney or Ashlee any day with its carefully wrought sonic textures.