Delay Trees: A Gleaming Sonic Cathedral

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A chiming, charming pop gem, Delay Trees' "Gold" blooms brightly, recalling the alluring sparkle of late-'80s Britpop.

Courtesy of the artist

A chiming, charming pop gem, Delay Trees' "Gold" blooms brightly, recalling the alluring sparkle of late-'80s Britpop.

If there's one thing the Finnish dream-pop band Delay Trees shares with its Scandinavian counterparts, it's a flair for the theatrical build: for letting the shimmering and hypnotic bloom into the stormy and anthemic. Still, the group isn't one to meander or pad its songs with long interludes. The 10 tracks on Delay Trees' recent self-titled full-length are models of concision, each stuffing a Sigur Ros epic's worth of buildup into four or so minutes at a time. The result is chiming, charming pop that blooms briskly and brightly, recalling the alluring sparkle of late-'80s Britpop as much as any contemporary group of Nordic weirdos.

There's not a misfire on Delay Trees, but the album opens on a particularly elegant note with "Gold," a heart-swelling ballad which dresses a few vague lyrical sketches ("Gold, come in / Take over and lift up my arms") in alluring grandeur. Rami Vierula's words aren't always terribly linear — they're more about setting a vague tone of discontented yearning — but the gleaming sonic cathedrals his band erects behind him more than compensate.