Bachelor pad folk? Hippie shoegaze? Whatever you call it, on their most accomplished album --
Sounds Like Circles Feel -- Michigan's
Calliope deftly combine the retro-futurism of
Tortoise and
Stereolab with '60s folk psychedelia riding waves of warm sound into a jazzy pop wonderland. "Sunny08" conjures images of
Soft Bulletin-era
Flaming Lips doing Laurel Canyon country-rock. "Midwest Life" is a groovy, indie-update of
the Free Design that finds Andy Dryer gently crooning, "there's only so many weekends left in our lives." And even on the less stand-out tracks ("Monsters in Here," "It's Later Than I Thought"), the band still manages to create a perfect, hazy ambience that's like a fantasy meeting of Kevin Shields and
Burt Bacharach. ~ Charles Spano