Conceived by Gersey’s Craig Jackson and his actor wife Camilla, the Sirens of Venice have debuted with a little pop record that thinks big. The songs play like reverent bedroom hymns to a vast pop heaven, whether shivering with embellishment or bathed in prickly noise. Jed Palmer (Alarm Birds, Girls & Adam) and Underground Lovers’ Vince Giarrusso co-produce, imparting a breathtaking openness to an album that features up to eight players spread across the globe. But at the sighing heart of it all are the intimate, measured songs, which Camilla wrote on guitar for Craig to pen the lyrics and sing lead.

This isn’t a bounding rock record by any means, although ‘Do You Believe’ is a bouncy full-band song that braids distortion, violin and Camilla’s phantom backup vocals. ‘It’s In My Head’ is more of a stock anthem, albeit catchy; ‘Still Got You’ features vocals mixed high and clear despite the crackling racket underneath; while ‘You & Me’ only gets at indie rock by way of cresting mellotron and a tentative tempo. Those are the comparatively upbeat songs – using as many as three guitars at once – on an album that’s predominately woozy and hushed. That said, the pristine ‘Love Lights Bloom, I’m A Fool’, with its enticingly off-kilter drums and sweetening strings, has an atmospheric, quiet-to-loud build a la Gersey.

Those scattered moments of heaviness only highlight the stark calm running through the better part of the album. Primarily just vocals and piano, the opening ‘Come Back To Me’ cites a broken record “playing the broken melodies”, summoning background sounds that perfectly fit that imagery. ‘Somewhere Under The Sea’ is one of those out-of-time slow-dance numbers, this time with reverb-splashed drums; and ‘Now I Feel The Weight’, another ballad, uses an attention-grabbing processed beat and other pretty tricks and textures. The closing ‘Long Lines Of Lonely Aches’ is expansive and mellow, sounding almost like a glossy Galaxie 500.

As we might expect from a married couple with their fair share of success in the past, this album isn’t some hungry shot at the big time. Nothing of the kind, in fact. Rather, it’s an unassuming pet project brimming with expert collaborators, consistent good taste, and a rare balance between huge sounds and tiny moments.

by Doug Wallen