Slow and Steady Seduction, Phase II

This singer/songwriter's latest album pop is sweet and sly, built on deceptively simple pop language.

Anya Marina’s minimalist take on singer/songwriter pop focuses on the propulsive rhythms that course under the surface of daily life. Nearly every song on Slow and Steady Seduction, Phase II is built on the foundation of a stiff, rhythmic backbone, giving Marina room to add and subtract elements and sketch out the mechanics of romance in deceptively simple pop language. Many of the tracks were produced and inspired by Spoon’s Britt Daniel, and Marina shares his knack for sonic subtraction. The warm organs and springy electronic beat of “Vertigo” slowly build, as wisps of guitar and organic drums enter the mix, and Marina’s girlish voice whispers sweetly about the dizzying effect of a certain someone. Elsewhere, the dirty guitar and languid vocals of “Afterparty at Jimmy’s” drip with sly eroticism, proving that even though her music is at home on the soundtrack of Grey’s Anatomy, it’s hardly aural wallpaper.