Let Go of Your Bad Days

The Vancouver-based Salteens' second album, Let Go of Your Bad Days, is a mature collection of mid-'90s-tinged indie chamber pop whose main fault is a set of utterly forgettable, if well-turned, lyrics. Main vocalist Scott Walker (no, not the eccentric balladeer) quirks endlessly like David Byrne, Sloan's Jay Ferguson, or Ben Folds, while a vaguely Elephant 6, piano-driven backing pops and cheery early-Beatles "ba ba ba"'s form a chorus under Walker's melodies. Tracks like "Turnpike" recall the acoustic psychedelics of Elf Power while the tracks led by bassist Megan Bradfield (who has since left the band), like "Time You Have Been Wasting," take on a vaguely Motown feel in spite of her flat delivery. Such sonic discrepancies are more than remedied by lovely string and horn arrangements, especially on the Zombies-sounding finale "Home Again."