Trashcan Sinatras

Syd Barrett and Carly Simon never had much in common — that is, until last month, when Trashcan Sinatras released their fifth full-length, In the Music. On the disc, the veteran Scottish indie-rock group included the single "Oranges and Apples," a tenderly strummed tribute to the late Pink Floyd founder, but they also convinced '70s soft-rock icon Carly Simon to lend her honeyed, husky voice to the track "Should I Pray." The mix might seem incongruous, but it makes perfect sense in the Sinatras' universe: Since 1987, they've released one meticulously crafted album of smooth, wistful, post-Smiths pop after another. Never exactly prolific, the band put out its last full-length, Weightlifting, in 2004 — and that felt more like a comeback than a continuation of its discography, coming as it did eight years after its predecessor, A Happy Pocket. But the Sinatras seem more like a band slowly simmering than sporadically erupting — which makes their wry, clever, heartache pop that much more humble and endearingly idiosyncratic.