The Boy Least Likely To - The Great Perhaps (2013)

Over the course of two albums (and a full-length Christmas record), the Boy Least Likely To squeezed all the sweet and uplifting indie pop they could out of an elementary-school music room's worth of instruments. Pairing Jof Owen's tender vocals and poignant songs with every little instrument Pete Hobbs could find was a formula that worked magic, but on their fourth album, 2013's The Great Perhaps, the duo set aside all the banjos, ukes, and melodicas in favor of an array of old synthesizers and drum machines. There's still some guitar in the mix, and some real drumming here and there, but mostly the sounds surrounding Owen this time are chirpy electronic tones that bubble and pop with exactly the same amount of fizzy happiness as anything they'd done previously. It turns out that exchanging kids' instruments for junk-shop keyboards wasn't that big of a stretch after all. In fact, it may have been the subtle shift in approach and sound that helps keep the band sounding fresh. Of course, a spiffy new sound will only get you so far, and if the songs are bunk, you aren't going to be winning many hearts. That's not even a tiny concern here, as Owen's tales of gentle heartbreak are as heart-melting as always. He has a real knack for making the saddest topics seem not so bad, even downright happy sometimes. At the very least, he usually follows up a desolate track ("Even Jesus Couldn't Fix My Broken Heart") with a tenderly uplifting track ("Climbing Out of Love") to help balance things out. The disco beats and silly synths only help make the tears more palatable, and the duo and friends (including Gwenno Saunders from the Pipettes, who sings a duet on the peppy, Dire Straits-quoting "It Could Have Been Me") show they are still masters of utter heartache delivered in a candy wrapping. The candy may be a little less cute and cuddly this time, and fans of banjos and ukuleles may feel cast adrift, but The Great Perhaps is another great album from the band. No perhaps about it.