Four Corners

The Sea and Cake occupy a very specific Chicago aesthetic — gentle, melodically sophisticated, harmonically adventurous in ways that don't call attention to themselves. Sam Prekop's voice is one of the most distinctive in indie rock: light, slightly detached, warm without being ingratiating.

Four Corners, from The Fawn (1997), demonstrates the band's approach: interlocking guitar figures owing something to bossa nova and something to jazz, a rhythm section that grooves without insisting, a melody that arrives as if it had always been there.

The Sea and Cake have remained a consistent if underheard presence in American indie music for thirty years. Their catalog is one of the more rewarding long-form listening experiences available.