Going for baroque, Tony Dekker and Great Lake Swimmers have tweaked their approach. Dekker decided to write songs without acoustic guitar, and the resulting sound is much more lush and approachable.

Great Lake Swimmers The Waves, The Wake (Nettwerk)

Don't worry--there is acoustic guitar. But there are also winds, banjo, organ and more. Each song has a different center, but the overall feel of the album is consistent. And Dekker's nose for off-kilter melody remains inerrant.

Somewhat counterintuitively, this album almost falls into what I've taken to calling 70s redux. By far the most eccentric example of this form, to be sure, but GLS has the lush feel and loose harmonies that exemplify that sound. Of course, there's also a whole lot more.

So much more, in fact, that it took a couple of weeks for me to really get my head around this. I kept trying to put this album away, and it did not let me. That calm insistence is one of the album's loveliest qualities. On this set, summer is always fading--but never faded.

Jon Worley