Though the name Casual Vocals may seem like a great moniker for a hipster a cappella ensemble, it is instead the name of Colleen Webb’s idiosyncratic, semi-unplugged band. The Milwaukeean’s second album, You Are I Am We Are, expands upon its predecessor’s bounty of musical hooks. There are precedents in Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde at her most vulnerable, the intersection of electronic music and folk pioneered by Ani DiFranco and Beth Orton, Sheryl Crow’s insouciance and Yael Naim’s balance of joy and emotional torpor, but Webb’s Casual Vocals possess their own quirky sprightliness. She claims that carrying her first child has borne some influence on the album’s songs, expressed by the lyrics’ exploration of expectations and what home entails. The best of You Are finds Webb and her collaborators bringing together disparate elements that at first might sound contradictory, but managing to concoct an individualized pop sound from them.
