Asleep at Heaven's Gates (2007)

When this quartet emerged in '04 with the underappreciated Out of the Shadow, they were pegged as sonic stepbrothers to the Shins — all polished indie-yuppie anthems, minus the Zach Braff-led fan club. Rogue Wave have since decamped from Sub Pop to Brushfire, the label cofounded by singer Jack Johnson, and their still-genial sound lends itself well to his beach-wood-bonfire-and-puka-shell-necklace aesthetic. Asleep at Heaven's Gate is tender and well wrought, though its psyched-out washes of guitar and vocals are more quiet tide than tempest. B
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