Le Loup - Family (2009) [Hardly Art] // Grade: B+

Le Loup are one of those bands that sound like they’ve been around for a very long time, when, in reality, their career is but a few years old. While they cite Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and Sufjan Stevens as influences, Le Loup’s deep mix of freak folk indie rock is practiced enough to convince unsuspecting listeners that they are the ones playing influencer.

Based in DC, Le Loup follow up 2007’s The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly with their sophomore release, the much more succinctly titled, Family. Le Loup possess a keen ability for adopting and recrafting current music trends, making them not only their own, but better in the process. Throughout Family, the drawn-out, layered compositions of Animal Collective mix with the tribal, chanting vocals of Yeasayer and the folk instrumentation of Vetiver. They are sounds that are all very familiar to the ear, but combined with an effortless polish that feels new, organic and exciting.

Family is a slow build, beginning with the sparsely instrumental “Saddle Mountains” and “Beach Town”, both which focus on vocal prominence and mood-setting. The next several track selections gradually add to one another’s complexity, until finally, at Family’s halfway point, “Forgive Me”, kicks the compositions into a layered mix of melody, folk noise and experimentation that rides out the remainder of the album, summarizing itself with the glimmering closer, “Celebration”.

Le Loup don’t break any new stylistic ground with Family, but it’s how they reinterpret the ground already broken by their predecessors that is their greatest strength. Drawing from a palette of current trends, Family is warm, inviting and familiar without sounding forced or expected.