Kevin Bronson on May 19th, 2011

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Perhaps the only album in recent years to approximate the meditative poesy of the National is “Tamer Animals,” the new album from Other Lives. Where the National’s haunting melancholy carries the aura of urban noir, the Stillwater, Okla., quintet operates on more pastoral topography, its lush orchestrations suggesting songwriter Jesse Tabish has frozen a moment in nature to inventory every fragile life. It’s powerful stuff, from the tempered vocal harmonies, to Jenny Hsu’s mournful cello, to the washes of organ and piano from Josh Onstott and Jonathan Mooney. The album, out this week on TBD Records, feels meticulous (it took more than a year to record with producer Joey Waronker) but not precious, and like the Other Lives live performance we witnessed at the Buzz Bands LA showcase at SXSW [pictured], it rewards patience with heart-stopping moments. When Paste magazine premiered the album’s title track last month, they recalled that Other Lives’ 2009 record was “criminally underrated.” Not sure that’s not possible with “Tamer Animals.”

||| Download: “Tamer Animals”

||| Live: Other Lives perform Saturday night at the Satellite.