Eau Claire, WI-based Daredevil Christopher Wright is edging their way into the Minneapolis music scene with their debut EP, which borrows pop sensibilities from highly compatible sources. At times, their music sounds like the gentle, candid side of the post-Ronald Jones' Flaming Lips and at others, like fragile 60s folk revivalists ala Espers or Currituck County.

The opening track, "How To Get My Head Back On My Shoulders," opens with the broken, dejected tone on the order of Elliot Smith or Connor Oberst before it blossoms into a rollicking feel good freak-out, complete with infectious recorder melody and jubilant vocal harmonies. "Parade of Tigers," the track which has landed the band some attention from airplay on the Current, is feel good all the way, sounding a bit like Weezer-ed out Cloud Cult, with the multi-part vocal fun of Akron/Family. On tracks like "Fresh Faced and Fearing," and the closer, "Everything I Do Comes Back to Me," the band takes a more somber and reflective tone. The album, as a whole, is comprised of these two opposites spread evenly across the disc, with one track of each sound coming both before and after the strangely titled "Intro," which is in the middle of the EP.

There's something in DCW for virtually all fans of folk rock or indie pop. To me, the most engaging thing about the band is the deft manipulation of vocal inflections which embellish the mood – or maybe it's simply the moods themselves, which feel like the careful articulation of a compositionally conscious young band. But what's possibly the band's greatest accomplishment is the way their debut leaves the door wide open for the future. CMJ

www.dcwright.org