There are certainly some standout tracks on Baba Yaga that are well worth the price of admission alone. “The Light,” a banjo-centric tune about waiting on a lover to get home, bucks the ubiquitous Avett Brothers-style deployment of the instrument and opts for the right mixture of rootsy folk and pop pleasure. On "Serial Bowls," the band dips into more traditional alt-country territory (think the Old 97’s with an echoey twist). Featuring clean leads coupled with vocal harmonies, "Serial Bowls," the album’s obvious standout song, is representative of the record as a whole: not a huge departure from the band’s earlier records, but definitely an indicator that it's compressing its sound quite a bit, despite longer arrangements.
Sure, there are songs that venture into the six-minute-plus territory (“Dig,” “Keith and Donna,” “Death Awaits” and album closer “St. Summercamp”), but they are much more focused than on earlier releases. If anything, a few of the shorter, sillier tunes on the record (“The Doewg”) might distract listeners from what is otherwise a coherent, not to mention impressive, set of songs. 4 out of 5.
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