LOMA 'Don't Shy Away'

There’s an elemental beauty to LOMA’s sophomore album, 'Don’t Shy Away', that reveals itself slowly but surely. After all, that’s the way it goes with most things in nature, a word that also happens to have been used as a fitting tag for the album – it’s not one you usually see alongside ‘alternative’ and ‘rock’, but for a band whose first releases include an instrumental soundtrack and a half-hour guided meditation, it’s not all that surprising. Unfurling with a patient and solitary kind of splendor, their music is evocative but never perfunctory, brimming with textures that are vaporous yet vividly drawn. 'Don’t Shy Away' distills those elements that were present in their debut to a more refined form, resulting in their most mesmerizing and rewarding effort yet.