The Fool

Together, guitarists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa form a sleeping giant. The Fool is an unpretentious, focused work that plucks from the best parts of dream-pop wonder while tossing in choice variables. The revelry begins with hypnotic tones on “Set Your Arms Down,” and by the time you reach the downtempo trance of “Warpaint,” the band could pretty much command you to do anything. “Bees” is a lovefest of electro beats and slow-burning tension, while “Shadows” shows the group’s voracious appetite for vocals that are distant, charming and uncomfortably intimate, like your best friend let you in on her closely guarded secret, and you don’t know whether you should listen or run. Their bio says this record marinated for a minute, and it shows on the push and pull of “Composure.” You just added this to your best-of.