New York-based quintet Caveman released their impressive debut, Coco Beware in 2011 – the album was ranked # 4 on this site’s Best of List in 2011 behind Fredrik’s stunningly beautiful Flora at 3; Scattered Trees‘s Sympathy, which hit a personal chord for me as I had dealt with the passing of my father, at #2; and Mayer Hawthorne’s wonderful impressions: The Covers EP, which was that year’s #1. Although initially released independently (take that, conglomerates!), Fat Possum Records signed the band and re-released Coco Beware in 2012. And as a result, the band and it’s debut effort had become something of a national phenomenon.

And with such a critically well-received effort, it has left fans and critics, including yours truly, anxiously awaiting a follow up effort. Fat Possum Records will be releasing Caveman’s self-titeld sophomore effort on April 2nd, and the album reportedly has the band stretching their creative legs with an expansion of their sound. With the release of “In The City,” the first single off the sophomore record, you’ll hear the same eerily haunting beauty; the same dreamy atmospheric feel; and lead singer Matthew Iwanusa’s falsetto. But there’s a greater emphasis on synths – in fact, the synths create a moodiness similar to that of most Peter Gabriel’s 1980s work.

If “In The City” is indicative of what the rest of the album will sound like, it may well rank highly not just on this site’s Best of 2013 list, I suspect that it’ll rank highly on many others’ lists too.