[rating=3.00]
Cyann & Ben find very little difference in post-rock’s deconstructions and dream pop’s swirling overtures. The Paris-based quartet spins them into one sound, one experience which drifts through the doors and out the windows of Sweet Beliefs, its third offering. Intensely beautiful, the cinema-reel suite is fluid and dramatic, shifting from tranquil comforts to urgent pleas with orchestration that soaks through each song and each sigh of near-silence. “Words” rides the thread of a subversive organ, Cyann’s voice leading the melody modestly through swelling instrumentation. The title track dances above a drip-drop piano; its mood somber is much like the shape-shifting “Guilty,” with its atmospheric downtempo built around busy keys. Cyann & Ben revive the notion of music as an art form, filled with stylistic nuances and careful color which make Sweet Beliefs an intriguing descent into uncharted emotion.
