Ultramarine

Montreal’s Young Galaxy takes inspiration from the ‘80s heyday of romantic synth-pop on its fourth album, Ultramarine. This collection builds on the strengths of 2011’s Shapeshifting, once again tapping Swedish producer Dan Lissvik to give the tracks a polished luster. Young Galaxy may have turned away from the effects-laden guitars and organic drums of its earlier days in favor of oscillating keyboards and programmed beats, but the results are anything but cold and robotic. Vocalist Catherine McCandless projects a stately yet vulnerable presence that fits the album's nostalgic mood. The first single, “Pretty Boy,” sets Ultramarine’s tone with defiantly idealistic lyrics and a rippling techno groove. Themes of furtive love and fleeting good times lend tracks like “New Summer” and “Privileged Poor” a bittersweet pang without descending into the maudlin. Young Galaxy gets creative with its rhythms, veering from the slightly askew tropical strains of “Fall for You” to the crisp British Invasion pulse of “Fever” and the Let’s Dance–era Bowie funk of “Out the Gate Backward.” Finely wrought and as tender as a bruise.