BLOGS

With debut album "Modern Rituals," Chief joins a list of modern musicians creating a little thing I like to call "beard music," specifically, a branch known as "beard folk." You know the type: Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes and (though rather feebly bearded) Midlake.

The 12-song album features two guitarists, bass and drums drenched in four layers of vocals. It won't blow your mind, but it might soothe your soul. You may get the feeling that you've heard it all before, done similarly by someone else — that's the main flaw of beard folk. In all its pleasantness, it remains indistinct.

Fortunately for Chief, there's an audience for that sound they emulate so well. And well they do with the earthy folk nebulas of "Modern Rituals" wafting between your ears. The California quartet performs best at its heights of upbeatness, as on the choruses of "The Minute I Saw It" and "Breaking Walls," or the sunny melodies of "In the Valley" and "Summer's Day." "Wait for You" may be the album's loveliest achievement, a tempered climb through a lush melody and soft drum thuds to craggy guitar summits.

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