Ida

Ida seem to have been storing up disappointments for the four years since their last album and are quietly seething. The sweetness of their largely acoustic sound is offset by sharp observation (see "The Details"), making Heart Like a River reminiscent of an intense, controlled savaging from a disgruntled ex.

This coed New York fivesome specializes in rainy-day folk songs pushed forward by
harmonies that swirl like nagging memories. Ida's eighth album is among their sparest yet,
with autumnally pretty tunes that are also full of quiet gravity, as if Neil Young and a lover
popped Valium and decided to hash things out on record.