Kevin Bronson on March 25th, 2014

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The new album from Los Angeles ambient rockers StaG, “Difference,” is a brilliant exercise in arranging the musical furniture – tasteful guitar parts, restrained electronics and propulsive rhythms working in concert with dreamy melodies and atmospherics. The band is the brainchild of pals-since-they-were-wee-lads Matt McGuire and Will Walden, and what they’ve achieved on this long-player (52-plus minutes) is a cinematic narrative that is once intimate and expansive. It suggests Band of Horses without the twang, or Grizzly Bear without the orchestra, or the Shins as more of a jam band. You might be inspired to dance a little, but mostly StaG [not to be confused with these Seattle guys] provides sustenance for the head and heart.

||| Stream: “I Think I’ll Shout” and “Pickmeup”

||| Also: “Difference” is available on a pay-what-you-want basis on Bandcamp.

||| Live: StaG plays Brokechella in downtown L.A. on April 19.