Cheap Wildlife

Rather than collapsing under the duress of a demanding year, Headlights have survived to surface with a collection of songs praising the transience of our friendships, lives, and aspirations.

As if the complexity of what the band worked through can’t be confined to standard verse-chorus structures, Wildlife sees Headlights stretching out instrumentally, letting songs breathe and grow in a manner similar to their accomplished live sets.

The band allows leadoff track, “Telephones,” to lift into a soaring, guitar-led coda. “Secrets” tight, claustrophobic verses and cyclic keyboards frame a breathless meditation on grief before erupting into wordless catharsis.

The album isn’t without upbeat moments. “I Don’t Mind at All” is a blurred, chugging rocker in the vein of classic shoegaze. On “Get Going” acoustic strumming and a buoyant bass line carry the song to a liquid chorus.

Wildlife is a work more elegiac than rousing, where the intimacy and elegance of the songs never fail to remind us of what has been left behind.