With Salt, Mr Twin Sister prove they're capable of sticking with a mood and sound for longer than a single song. Even on 2014's excellent self-titled album, the band indulged in lots of genre mixing and matching as part of their reinvention (which also included changing their name from Twin Sister). Now a four-piece, Mr Twin Sister go deeper into the late-night cool that lurked around the edges of their previous album on Salt's sultry, sprawling songs. "Alien FM" rests Andrea Estella's musings about a literally and figuratively disconnected relationship on a satin-smooth bed of piano and tenor sax courtesy of guitarist Eric Cardona; "Set Me Free" pairs roomy dub rhythms with synth washes straight out of an Angelo Badalamenti soundtrack; and "Koh-I-Noor"'s velvety intimacy blossoms under headphones. A little more energy courses through the album's most accessible tracks, whether it's the brassy "Taste in Movies" or "Jaipur," a shadowy love chase where it's not clear to Estella if she's the pursuer or the pursued. Despite her uncertainty, she's never sounded so present before, and her singing and songwriting make listeners pay attention even when Salt's smoothness threatens to slide past their ears. The album's mix of languid sounds and strong viewpoints is novel, and Mr Twin Sister still find beauty in the world even as they call out its ugliness. On "Keep on Mixing," Estella decries the polarization and constant surveillance of the late 2010s with honeyed vocals and enticingly brisk beats. Elsewhere, the band's takedowns of consumerism on "Buy to Return" and objectification on the self-conscious funk of "Tops and Bottoms" never sound heavy-handed. They pull off this trick even more masterfully on "Deseo," where Estella's Spanish-language vocals celebrate her Salvadoran/Puerto Rican heritage and add to the deceptive allure of her meditations on body image. Songs such as these make Salt less immediate than Mr Twin Sister, but the album's sophisticated, thought-provoking confessions and confrontations are well worth the close listening they require. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

1		Keep on Mixing
2		Alien FM
3		Koh-I-Noor
4		Buy to Return
5		Tops and Bottoms
6		Deseo
7		Taste in Movies
8		Jaipur
9		Set Me Free
10		Power of Two
11		Echo Arms
12		Echo Arms (Organ)
13		Power of Two

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