The Channels

The self-titled album from this Cambridge-by-way-of-Falmouth band feels like the album your favorite indie band made before you knew who they were. The song order isn't shuffled to perfection, and the lyrics are less adorned than your darling act's later work. But the nonstudio locales where it was recorded (which include beach houses, a stairwell, and a bathroom) make for an intimate, fluent album that suggests sonic triumphs to come.