As Eric & Magill, former Camden bandmates and long-distance friends Eric Osterman and Ryan Weber have recorded several albums and EPs worth of lovely, bittersweet indie-pop, much of which plays like one last great weekend with a departing college pal you say you'll visit soon even as you know it could be years before you see them again. That sense of remorse was particularly thick on the duo's earliest releases, including 2010's All Those I Know, but last year's Night Singers LP expanded on the folky intimacy of that record with fuller, grander arrangements and a more joyous outlook. The group's new album In This Light uses Night Singers' most celebratory moments as a jumping-off point, piling tight, joyous harmonies and swooning synthesizers inspired by '80s Brit-pop and dream-pop, from the Modern English-styled opener "Easy It Goes" to the New Wave-y showstopper "That Old Haunt." It's not a reinvention so much as a recalibration, and though In This Light is the group's catchiest, most direct release by some distance, the duo's signature intimacy remains untouched. This is still the work of two good friends, speaking in the shared language they spent years building.
You can stream In This Light below.
