If You Blink, You Could Miss It: NYC Albums to Look Out For
Bishop Allen – Lights Out (August 19 via Dead Oceans)
After five years since their last release, we sorta just figured Justin Rice and Christian Rudder finally became patched-elbow English professors or mumblecore directors. Instead, they moved out of the city to ever-quaint Kingston and spent a year recording Lights Out, a product that remains tailor-made for a very specific population of gentrified Brooklyn (enough so to include it on this list). All the marks that shot their early albums into the hearts of Carroll Garden residents are there: keen lyrics, polite and delicate backing vocals from Darbie Nowatka, at least one reference to being 17, and, above all, Rice’s ability to detect the exact moment he’s bumming you out about growing older to have a buoyant melody sweep in and make you momentarily forget that you, too, are no longer 17.