Hrishikesh Hirway’s the One AM Radio certainly lives up to its name, as his is the kind of wispy, lulling music that could easily float away with a light breeze. Thankfully, there’s enough substance to keep Hirway’s third album, This Too Will Pass, tethered to the ground. The album opens with the too-brief “The Harvest,” a nervous acoustic guitar melody setting the stage for an ominous narrative accompanied by cinematic violin and electronic programming that beats like a dying pulse. The hook comes in the form of chamber choir-like harmonies, as it does on the following track, “In the Time We’ve Got.” “You had the city in you/Always in the way you moved,” Hirway sings, his voice reminiscent of the late Elliott Smith, who has become somewhat of an indie singer-songwriter touchstone. Like Smith, Hirway’s music is a little too gauzy for its own good, but there are enough hidden surprises—like the regal brass coda and deconstructed hip-hop drum loop of “Lest I Forget” and “Mercury,” respectively—to keep you wide awake, and the album is so majestic that it remains with you like a cherished memory…even if it is a fuzzy memory.
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