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Sarah Tomlinson

Trashcan Sinatras WEIGHTLIFTING

“It’s a Miracle” on this, the fourth full-length album by Scotland’s long-time jangle-pop practitioners, attests to what Trashcan Sinatras do best — blissful, lushly orchestrated pop. It could also be a comment on the album’s existence. The band members must be pinching themselves as they release their first new album in eight years on indie label spinART, swept up in the new indie-pop revival along with the French Kicks and label mates Apollo Sunshine. The original quintet pick up just where they left off, unfurling bright, guitar-driven pop songs densely layered with uplifting harmonies. “Welcome Back” has an infectious, free-spirited joyousness and a neat U-turn of vocals that evoke the days when R.E.M. were just indie-rockers from Athens; “All the Dark Horses” bursts with a shimmying guitar hook over a shaking beat. The ballads tread the fine line between lovely and maudlin, but the songwriting and the arrangements are for the most part sophisticated, with pleasant little surprises like the sinuous bass line and the nimble guitar squiggles on the old-fashioned crooner “Usually.”