Laylights
Auricle

Denver’s Laylights glibly use the term “post-pop” as their MySpace headline. And while it may be an inside joke or a bit of sarcasm, the title oddly fits. Where post-rock revels in sweeping, orchestral intensity, the galloping guitars, towering vocals, and pulsing drums of Laylights gives guitar-pop a lush, complex dimension. The group’s new full-length Auricle—named for a part of the ear as well as the upper chamber of the heart—brings the sparkling hopefulness of their previous, self-titled EP to a slightly more thoughtful, but no less swaggering and danceable, level. With deeper lyrics and a strikingly more polished sound, Auricle has a welcome maturity and heft to it, suggesting that the two years separating the band’s two records were times of trial by fire. By retaining and refining their boisterous Killers-and-Interpol-inspired sound, Laylights bring a touch of motion and even sweetness to their darkest moments. [CS] Grade: B+

http://denver.decider.com/articles/localized-spring-thaw-edition,810/