The Deserters

Rachel Zeffira's stunning debut album, the Deserters, is both beautiful and beguiling-a gauzy, rapturous tour de force that mines both Zeffira's classical training as well as the pop sensibilities she displayed as one half of Cat's Eyes. It might recall at times the baroque pop of John Cale and the hazy experimentation of My Bloody Valentine, but at heart it's a largely unclassifiable record that stands defiantly alone and apart from it's peers. The most striking sonic component of the record are the orchestrations-a central feature of what elevates Zeffira's music into the extraordinary.