Guster: Look Alive

Vinyl LP pressing. Look Alive - Guster's first new album in four years - was produced by Leo Abrahams (Regina Spektor, Brian Eno/David Byrne, Belle and Sebastian) and recorded in a vintage keyboard museum in Calgary, AB, with additional sessions helmed by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Alvvays) and Collin DuPuis (Angel Olsen, Lana Del Rey). It captures the group - Adam Gardner, Ryan Miller, Luke Reynolds, and Brian Rosenworcel - at an inspired moment, creating the most layered, moody and brilliantly unpredictable music of their storied career. Perhaps it was the 30 degree below zero weather that inspired Abrahams to encourage Guster to embrace "cold sounds" during the making of Look Alive. The album's title track opens with a stark, haunting synth refrain and veers in unexpected directions from there. "Despite having access to room after room of well-maintained analog keys, Leo gravitated to a cheap Ensoniq Mirage synth from the 1980's," recalls Rosenworcel. "It was the beginning of a stylistic clash that played out beautifully."