Blusom

Topping Go Slowly All the Way Round the Outside, Blusom’s excellent 2003 debut, would have been damn near impossible. Wisely, partners Mike Behrenhausen and Jaime White, known as Jme, don’t even try. Instead, they use their sophomore disc as an opportunity to further develop their beguiling blend of acoustic instrumentation and electronic experimentation. The tracks may seem scattershot, but they still hit the target. The disc includes danceable oddities (“Midnights and Mornings”), jolting instrumental fragments (“Gossamer Wasp Saves Himself”), gorgeous balladry (“Greens and Greys”) and plenty of electro inventiveness. This eccentric combination works because of Jme’s expanding command of production techniques, heard to exhilarating effect on the Enoesque “Building Blocks” and in the emotional weight Behrenhausen brings to the likes of “The Holy Together,” which features the line Let’s make a child to sing songs when we’re dead. Like the bizarro cityscape on its cover, The Metapolitan confounds expectations at every turn — a quality that makes return visits that much more fascinating.