Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia (Upper Management Recording Co.)

You could never mistake Said the Whale as a band from any other part of the world because the landscape of the West Coast finds its way into the songs. “Curse of the Currents” mentions the Strait of Georgia, while the names of “Howe Sounds” and “The Banks of the English Bay” are self-explanatory, but the tunes, performed by singer-guitarists Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft, are no mere geography lessons. In fact, they seem to suggest that, as blessed as we Vancouverites are to be living in Lotus Land, we’re just as prone to the foibles that afflict everyone everywhere. Consider these lines from “Howe Sounds”: “Yeah, I’ve got love handles but I cannot handle love/Let’s go back to the coast, baby, westward to the ocean.”

Said the Whale’s sound is organic and clean, sometimes verging on whole-grain-muesli folk (as on the campfire-friendly sing-along “The Real of It”), but more often sharing the exuberant smart-pop tendencies of local indie veterans the Parlour Steps. This disc combines the band’s first EP, Taking Abalonia, with seven more recent songs. The earlier material, especially the peppy “Live Off Lamb”, exhibit a rather shameless devotion to the Shins, but the new material suggests that Said the Whale has plenty of its own ideas. These local waters run deep.