Craft Spells' 2011 debut, Idle Labor, was something of an overlooked gem, but then again, being overlooked is an occupational hazard for Justin Vallesteros. After all, he's working within a steady subgenre where supply almost always outstrips demand, triangulating pop within "indie-," "synth-," and "mope-" prefixes-- essentially, makeout music for loners. But Idle Labor did manage to distinguish itself, and both the title and the content of the sweet love hangover "After the Moment" illustrated how. Beneath the sonic cohesion of Idle Labor was a narrative arc guided by the emotional immediacy of Vallesteros' writing-- whether it was butterflies or heartache, it didn't sound like he gave himself much lead time to process his feelings. In other words, it encapsulated an entire relationship that could've ended 30 minutes prior to its recording.
But like most debut albums that appear to heavily draw from autobiographical romantic turbulence, it leads to the question of whether Vallesteros already exhausted his best material. Gallery EP is a follow-up that evades that question by pretending it's not being asked. He just makes more Craft Spells songs that could've easily served as deep cuts on Idle Labor or the basis for a worryingly similar follow-up, and without anything that pops like "After the Moment" or plays into a broader lyrical scope, Vallesteros relies more on his debut's goodwill to distinguish itself rather than its own merits.
Despite taking Idle Labor on the road, Gallery is still a solo recording made of the same constituent elements-- glistening guitar treble, rudimentary drum machines pounding out patterns a little too jittery and stiff for human hands, occasional pop-funk affectations, insatiable pining, and Vallesteros' sonorous vocals-- something like Jens Lekman with less range and polish but still an effective tool. His melodic sensibilities could be described as such, too: Opener "Still Left With Me" digs away with little subtlety, voice and guitar doubling each other to drive a simple, singsong hook home. On the subsequent track, he sings, "warmth consumes me," which simultaneously feels like a romantic ideal for Vallesteros as a lyricist and an artistic one for Craft Spells' imperfect and humane electronics. "Burst" is the closest Craft Spells get to no-qualifiers pop, but the handcrafted production for once feels like a limitation instead of an atmospheric choice-- if the bass had the depth to sound rounded rather than blocky and the acoustic guitars had sparkle instead of a dot-matrix texture, it could give us an idea of how Vallesteros truly hears his music. It's tough to say whether it would augur a promising new direction or make him sound completely generic: My guess is that it would end up something like the first Stills album, and that's not a bad thing.
And I guess the issue at hand is that if you're invested in Craft Spells' arc, it'd be nice to at least have an idea rather than a wild guess. Gallery is six Craft Spells songs that range from good to pretty good, which theoretically should make it a welcome addition. But so many of Vallesteros' predecessors-- the Radio Dept., Belle and Sebastian, even more recent peers like Wild Nothing-- reward fans by using EPs as chances to work without a net, and the results can often outstrip those of their actual albums. Hopefully, Gallery is the closure of this particular moment and Vallesteros is inspired to see what comes after.
