"The vocal album." No words strike more fear in the heart of the instrumental music lover. But if you're at all familiar with the work of Eluvium, AKA Matthew Cooper, you needn't worry. His voice is exactly as you always imagined, a further intensifier of the depressing moods he builds in his Portland, Oregon studio. The vocal equivalent of the 27-minute piano sigh that was 2004's An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death, Cooper's baritone is frighteningly delicate — a world you want to visit, but one that makes you feel like a voyeur when you do.

The haunting ghost of Ian Curtis comes to mind when hearing Cooper slump his way through Similes. But unlike Joy Division's almost unrelentingly dour backing on Closer, Cooper surrounds himself with sweetness: The upper-register piano on "The Motion Makes Me Last" sounds like sunlight shimmering on water; "Cease to Know" flutters prettily along for 11 too-short minutes; "Leaves Eclipse the Light" lets a music-box putter underneath its crying drone. Instead of thinking about Similes as Cooper's vocal album, it's likely more accurate to simply call it his first album, period. His previous full-lengths were lengthy mood pieces; Similes is something more complex and… read more »