Shipping News’s debut album carries the energy from Jason Noble and Jeff Mueller’s previous work in Rodan to a fine new approach in its own right, retaining the sense of post-hardcore energy mixed in with a striving to find and test new approaches with rock music as such — perhaps not surprising given the band grew out of an idea to create music for the This American Life radio show. A song like “Steerage” has music melt away into the sound of whirring helicopters, lyrics are mixed deeper into the arrangements, and the mood is very contemplative.

– Ned Raggett