The Apartments - Drift (1993)

Drift features a heavier guitar sound than the albums that bookend it, but otherwise fits right into the Apartments' whiskey-soaked, vaguely French universe. Frontman Peter Milton Walsh's obsessions -- old hotels, deserted train stations, haunted women -- are all present, and his songs as melancholy as ever, if less delicate this time out. With such gorgeous melodies and cinematic lyrics, though, it seems silly to complain -- if the Apartments have settled into a groove, at least it's a good one. Drift does not reach the heights of 1995's A Life Full of Farewells, the Apartments' chamber-pop masterpiece. But fans of Tindersticks, Leonard Cohen, and Spain will find it rewarding all the same.