Gorgeous melancholy is one of those qualities that makes indie pop go round, and Alexis & the Samurai’s latest is practically awash in it. The gorgeous part is what you notice first, with all those rich melodies and the crystal purity of Alexis Marceaux’s vocals. She and Sam Craft, both multi-instrumentalists, complement both with their canny arrangements, whether it’s a Fleetwood Mac piano/brushed-drum groove on “Stuck,” layered Eno-esque electronics on “Peel Off the Wax”, or a full wall of Spector/Belle & Sebastian sound on “Swamp Fire.” The latter makes good use of something that’s either a theramin or a saw, soaring into the heavens alongside Marceaux’s voice.

But it’s the album’s haunting undertow that really gets under your skin. Consider their version of the familiar Fats Waller tune, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.” Nearly every version that’s been recorded, from Sinatra to McCartney, has been a bit jolly. But the lyrics are totally miserable if you take them at face value—after all, the poor singer is sitting there writing to herself—and that’s how they treat it; Marceaux’s vocal is full of heartbreak and gets spookily distorted in the last verse. “You Alone” and “Shut Up” are both about women at loose ends; her jump into the high register on the line “I’m at my wit’s end” is the song’s emotional payoff.

Not that some of these tunes aren’t happier, or at least funnier. “Pots and Pans” and “Stuck” celebrate living in creative squalor and running your car into a ditch, respectively, and there’s a worldbeat take on  the Cajun tune, “Parlez-Nous a Boire” (the same arrangement that the pair do live with their other band, Sweet Crude). But even these foot-stomping moments maintain the album’s feel of subtlety and grace.