The Milk of Human Kindness

On the first album released under his Caribou moniker, Dan Snaith mostly eschews the spiraling psychedelica of Up in Flames; instead he creates clearer arrangements and better songs, both more expansive and comparatively sober.

After dealing with a slight setback (Handsome Dick Manitoba's baffling appropriation of the name, which led to Snaith's subsequent rebirth as Caribou), he proves on The Milk of Human Kindness that his compositional powers have grown during his five years on the scene.