Compassion

Lush and entrancing, Compassion is an expertly crafted blend of synth-pop melodicism and ethereal drift. Bold opener “Stardom” reflects Lust for Youth’s swiftly growing compositional skills as Hannes Norrvide’s voice, as haunted as it is yearning, skates across gauzy arpeggios and spare, lustrous guitar. On “Better Looking Brother,” the trio add rippling percussion, flirting with a deliciously cool brand of dance-floor euphoria. And on the record’s stunning finale, the near-ambient “In Return,” they submerge themselves in a hazy cloud of sumptuously layered atmospherics.