Night Shop - The Fountain (2020)

On his Night Shop debut, 2018's In the Break, onetime Babies drummer Justin Sullivan made good use of a backing band that included such esteemed indie players as Hand Habits' Meg Duffy (bass), Anna St. Louis (backing vocals), and his Flat Worms bandmate Will Ivy (guitar). Arriving two years later, the six-track EP The Fountain brings everybody back, with Duffy offering both guitar and bass performances. Adding to the pool of contributors here are Flat Worms' Tim Hellman (bass), Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield (vocals), Wand's Sofia Arreguin (piano), and Mirror Travel's Tiffanie Lanmon (drums), with Jarvis Taveniere of Woods acting as engineer and playing multiple instruments on the record. The resulting tracks double down on the relaxed, slightly rock-leaning folk-rock of the debut, with an ambling, searching tone in simpatico with many of the associated projects. It begins with "Waiting" and a relatively sparse arrangement that favors the low end of the pitch range, with plodding guitar, bass, and piano joining Sullivan's deep-voiced reflections ("This is a life of patience/This is a life of waiting/And it's too short to tie your hands behind your back/It's too short to do these things that feel so bad"). Switching to a low-key acoustic palette, the title track also mulls over the passage of time ("The names have changed/Some things remain"), and closer "In the Twilight Sun," featuring Crutchfield, merges smoky alt-country and slow-brewing jam tendencies. Outlier "Down the Line" is an up-tempo, action-endorsing travel ditty with its core rock combo reinforced by handclaps and rhythm piano, but the bulk of the EP takes the vantage point of a musing observer who keeps returning to the idea that wherever you go, there you are.