Brute Heart: Lonely Hunter

The sophomore release from this Minneapolis, Minnesota trio seamlessly blends elements of art rock/pop with touches of world music — Middle Eastern and Indian music influence abound — in deeply imaginative and thoroughly pure ways. The undeniably cool and thoughtfully executed tracks call to mind the Brian Eno/David Byrne classic My Life in the Bush of Ghosts but add a thoroughly contemporary spin on the matter. Key tracks include “Hunter”, a heavy, unpretentious tune rife with trance-inducing rhythms as well as “Charmed One”, a quiet and meditative number that seems to have been birthed specifically for rain-soaked afternoons and dark nights of the soul. More conventional — a term used here rather loosely — numbers populate the album’s back end but Brute Heart is really at its best when destroying boundaries and expanding minds.