Comparisons between musicians are blunt instruments. But if a more orchestral take on Elliott Smith appeals, Canadian troubadour Andy Shauf is a find. A singer-songwriter with a Beatles hang-up and a voice like sodden velvet, Shauf is on his second properly available album. The Party isn’t a concept album so much as a set of closely observed tracks linked by intersecting characters where Shauf replaces Smith’s more misanthropic tendencies with compassion and wry understatement. On the more indie-leaning Quite Like You, Shauf’s narrator makes a clumsy play for his best friend’s on-off girlfriend. Partygoers collapse or embarrass themselves; strings, clarinets and lush Harry Nilsson-style moments all add to the snapshot of an accomplished new voice.
