Grapes

Muffin’s Grapes starts out in seemingly familiar territory — acoustic guitar and voice, singing out a simple song that sits neatly between psychedelic folk and indie-pop. But more curious things happen the deeper you get into Grapes. She’s a songwriter who signposts her influences directly, so the “All Tomorrow’s Parties”-esque, repetitive piano figure you hear three songs in is part of the arrangement for a song called, unsurprisingly, “VU.” There’s some lovely chorus singing on “We Are The Rainbow,” and the appearance of a wind-up music box on “Judee” functions poetically as a madeleine, a spine-tingling moment of déjà vu. Throughout, Muffin’s songs glow, their gentle kindness framed in all sorts of surprising ways.