Ohbijou – Beacons

“We are where the seasons meet,” Casey Mecija sings on “Eloise and the Bones.” On Beacons, the second album from Toronto indie pop ensemble Ohbijou, seasons are the stuff of human relationships, the maps we follow to find one another. In other words, there’s something that seems refreshingly Canadian about Ohbijou’s sound and approach. “Wildfires” is an anthem that sparkles and soars with urgency. Following hot on its heels, “Black Ice” is chilling love song, in which “the winter brings a heaviness, this weight.” Beacons is all very moving, and, as you might expect, a little melodramatic, but such sentiment usually comes with the territory. On another standout, “Make it Gold,” Mecija urgently asks her lover to “Bring back the wind that blew the fire into the woods where I wait for you.” The snow that conceals and the flames that expose are channeled through Ohbijou’s tightly crafted collection of Canuck pop pipe-dreams and the result is an album is often just as moving as it is intriguing. (Last Gang Records, www.lastgangrecords.com) Jonathan Dyck