I’ll admit I was a bit intimidated by Crushed Stars at first. This is going to take a serious attention span, I thought to myself as I started listening. In the Bright Rain borders on slowcore — a genre pretty much invented to describe Low. But by the second or third track, I was hooked.

Despite the mellow sound and speed, In the Bright Rain is an effortless listen. Todd Gautreau’s baritone voice is always thick with reverb, drifting through his guitar’s echoes. Strings, horns, and a variety of guitar pedals keep things interesting. A few of his solos (“Copenhagen” and “Take Flight”) literally sound like satellites orbiting through the space in the music, and the twangy guitar of “Brighter Now” sounds like ‘60s psychedelic pop.

Todd Gautreau is pretty much a one-man band, but the album features guest appearances by Howard Draper (ex-Okkervil River/Shearwater), Buffi Jacobs (The Polyphonic Spree) and drummer Jeff Ryan (St. Vincent, The War on Drugs). Still, the knowledge that one man is behind just about everything adds to the intimacy of the record.

(Simulacra Records, no address provided)