The Wheat Pool — Hauntario

Those who turn their nose up at so-called indie music that sounds ready for the masses will have a difficult decision to make with Hauntario. The Wheat Pool belong to a line of alt.country musicians — inhabited by the likes of Luke Doucet, Jim Bryson and Blue Rodeo — that's appreciated by discerning, in-the-know listeners, but that could also easily find its way onto the radio.

Vocally, some solid harmonies appear here, and a bit of Cuff The Duke frontman Wayne Petti's style is evident. Lyrically, The Wheat Pool often tend toward cliche — "If my love is an axe, you're the tree," for example — but it doesn't happen so often that it gets irksome.

About half the time The Wheat Pool lean more towards pop-rock than country — it's mainly the lap steel that keeps this from shifting all the way over to the pop side. The band have said that in crafting this sophomore effort they planned on "moving past the alt.country jams into a more in-your-face, indie-rock-roots style," so their current aesthetic won't be a big surprise for fans.

It's likely the four-piece still have better in them, but Hauntario is certainly worth some attention.

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