Yearling

Recent transplants to Oregon from Southern California, the Parson Red Heads are well-schooled in West Coast pop, both past and present. If their chiming guitars recall the heyday of SoCal greats the Byrds, their gorgeous vocal harmonies also fit in well alongside modern Pac-NW fixtures the Fleet Foxes. Frontman Evan Way writes songs that are bright musically even when they’re darker lyrically; there’s honest weight in the words to “Unemotional,” but the melody is instantly memorable. It helps, too, that his wife Brette Marie Way is a brilliant drummer; her careful buildup in the pre-chorus enhances the song’s dramatic tension. A secret weapon is lead guitarist Sam Fowles, who steps out front on two songs (“Happy We Agree” and “I Was Only”) with a vulnerable vocal style that broadens the band’s expressiveness. Elsewhere, particularly in “Banking on the Sun,” the band echoes the Southern pop classicism of Big Star, which makes the co-production touches of longtime Alex Chilton cohort Chris Stamey all the more appropriate. And when everyone’s voices converge on “Burning Up the Sky,” the Parson Red Heads transcend, soaring on the breeze of a simple song buoyed by an abundance of talent and a sincerity of spirit.