The tracks on KaiserCartel's debut largely suppress Courtney Kaiser's bowl-you-over vocals, but never enough to disabuse you of the suspicion that she and fellow Brooklynite Benjamin Cartel are really a radio-ready country-pop machine masquerading as a precocious indie-folk duo. They aim for the pillowy-soft male/female harmonies all the kiddies flip for these days, but on tracks such as "Oh No" and especially "The Good Ones" (is that Sara Evans?), they aren't fooling anyone.

You can't blame KaiserCartel for courting a hip young audience, but on tracks like "Inside Out" and "The Season Song" (refrain: "Fireflies on autumn nights/Jack o' lantern burning bright/These are things we see each year/That show we grow"), they've apparently equated "young" with "preschool-age." Cellist Nina Lee makes the biblical-themed "The Flood" rich and moody, while the seamless vocal blending on the pretty ballad "Traveling Feet" is where the formula the duo have chosen most fulfills its promise.

- Claire Shefchik