Talisman

On his second solo album, and his first self-released effort, Alastair Galbraith spent a goodly amount of time letting chance take the reins. There’s a spectral, haunted quality to songs like “Talisman” and “Coast Road”; the deep drones of “Lucid Branches” are vivid, evocative; “Anais” is one of Galbraith’s tenderest, most gentle laments. What feels new to Talisman, or more pronounced than before, is an openness to the random and the unplanned; songs like “Mrs. Meggarty” and “Policemen On Ether” are unpredictable, as you’re never entirely sure where your feet land in their wayward narratives. Galbraith’s gift for melody is still intact, but he’s happier to let it settle in seemingly ungainly ways, the better to express the many discomforts of the world.