Audio Mixer: Brendan Canty.

The Washington, DC singer songwriter Benjy Ferree's debut album has a DIY sound that's often stunningly pretty. He augments his small combo songs with strings and an off-key piano, but unlike many other lo-fi indie artists he remembers to include hooks, and has a natural ear for harmony. An unsettling darkness lurks beneath the surface of many of his songs--"Private Honeymoon" is a gorgeous love song that may or may not be sung by a stalker, the sylvan "Why Bother," with its pure, woodland sprite backing vocals, features a narrator being stalked by people wearing hoods, and the bouncy optimism of "Hollywood Sign" is undercut by a singer who may just be planning to jump off the Los Angeles landmark.