Chad VanGaalen is a bit of an indie pop Renaissance man. He writes, performs, and records all his material, builds his own instruments, designs and draws the album artwork, and even animates his own music videos.



His third offering on Seattle’s Sub Pop Records, Soft Airplanes, is a quieter, more cohesive work. While the previous albums have relied on the idiosyncratic nature of his esoteric arrangements, Airplanes sounds more calculated and methodically produced. It’s still guitar-driven pop, with layers of playfully esoteric instrumentation and traces of electronic flourish, but the strength of VanGaalen’s work is still his voice. There’s a subtle, melancholic charm in his quivering tenor. (He’s from Canada, which could explain why he’s so sad.)



Though I could name a handful of truly excellent tracks, “Cries of the Dead” best shows that these are bedroom recordings that capture the intimacy and honesty not found within the soundproof walls of a studio. Lyrically and sonically, Soft Airplanes is minimalist but not simple, fragile but not frail, and heartfelt but not wussy.