Kevin Bronson on February 14th, 2021

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Celebrating a busy week for album releases, here’s a roundup of capsule touts featuring Steady Holiday, Run River North, Møme & Ricky Ducati, Luna Shadows, Quiet Canyons and Sun Kin. [For Teenage Wrist’s new album, see our interview here.]

STEADY HOLIDAY, “Take the Corners Gently”

Life is full of wiggles and interrelationships, a professor once told me with a wink. Led by the effervescent anthem “Living Life,” Steady Holiday’s third album celebrates them all, especially our squiggly personal arcs that often end up being circular. “Painting white walls white / Just to kill the time,” Dre Babinski sings on the opening track. “Take the Corners Gently” is self-aware without being self-obsessed (see the tongue-in-cheek video for the final single, “Sunny in the Making”), as comfortable being bold (“Tangerine”) as vulnerable “Love Me When I Go to Sleep”). It’s all underpinned with warm indie-pop and ’70s-styled sonics; Blake Sennett (Rilo Kiley, The Elected) produced, with an assist from Blake Straus, and both played on the album along with Derek Howa and Russell Pollard (Everest). Some uber-hip independent label missed the boat not getting behind this release.

RUN RIVER NORTH, “Creatures in Your Head”

On the Valley trio’s third album (fourth, if you add up everything on their “Monsters Calling Home” EPs), they work with a host of producers and co-writers to fine-tune their already strong predilection for catchy, radio-ready pop-rock. So many of their singles stick with you — “Lonely Weather,” “Pretty Lies,” “Spiders,” “Hummingbird” and “One for Me” — but just as memorable is their overall earnestness.

MØME & RICKY DUCATI, “Flashback FM”

Highlighted by the singles “They Said,” “Got It Made” and “I Know,” the long-distance collaboration between the French DJ/producer and the L.A.-based singer seeks to capture the L.A. vibe, circa the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s. Or at least a segment of it. Present is the insouciance; absent is any sense of danger or adventure. Shine your disco shoes for this addictive mix.

LUNA SHADOWS, “Digital Pacific”

As much a value-added greatest hits collection as a debut album, Luna Shadows offers a whopping 18 tracks of lush synth-pop. Ten or 11 of the songs have been released as singles, dating back to 2016’s “Hallelujah California,” which still deserves a hallelujah after all these years. Working with collaborators Bradley Hale (Now, Now) and Thom Powers (The Naked and Famous), the New York native fashions an album she says is “mapped out like a California road trip.” Best among the new tracks: “Nite Swim.”

QUIET CANYONS, “Quiet Canyons”

Acoustic finery from songwriter Tim Williams (who formerly fronted Soft Swells), reflecting on a year in which (in no particular order) upheavals rocked the nation, his second daughter was born and he underwent his fourth open-heart surgery. Somehow, optimism wins. “We Overflow,” indeed.

SUN KIN, “After the House”

Owing to its mix of instrumentation and rhythms, the new album from the native of Bombay is an eclectic “house”” indeed.