Penny for his thoughts

Indie Rock

Great Lake Swimmers

While Sufjan Stevens has publicly professed his fear of his music stagnating, the like-minded Great Lake Swimmers seem to have no desire to mix it up. As a result, "Ongiara," the group’s follow-up to 2005's "Bodies and Minds," delivers more of the same: quiet, pensive songs set atop delicate arrangements and frontman Tony Dekker's wavering choir-boy voice drenched in reverb. Like Stevens’s mission to record a full album for every US state, Dekker not only has a similar obsession with geography, but he sounds like Stevens when declaring it. "Ongiara" is Dekker's love letter to his native Canada. At his best, Dekker can write an evocative song that explores acoustic space as well as any modern songwriter, like "Put There by the Land." Still, he has yet to demonstrate enough originality to push this talent to the forefront. [Glenn Yoder]

Great Lake Swimmers plays at the Middle East Upstairs on June 5.