Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf’s latest record, The Party, is a treasure trove of subtlety. Each listen reveals a new secret, whether it’s textural, musical, or thematic. Listen #13: You hear a previously undiscovered piano trill buried in the back of the mix and it changes everything. Listen #34: You gradually realize that the album’s 10 tracks form a single narrative tapestry, centered on the same bogus house party. Shauf reminds everyone who writes about him of Portland legend Elliott Smith, but the comparison is reductive—Smith portrayed his own harrowing experiences with drug addiction and depression as third-person accounts in an attempt to therapeutically distance himself from his demons. Shauf, on the other hand, is a big-eyed reporter, sitting at the back of the room with a notepad, privately relishing in everyone else’s drama. However, the two songwriters have the same masterful command of melody and arrangement: like Smith, Shauf is a pop traditionalist to the core, and his songs evoke everyone from Emitt Rhodes and Harry Nilsson to Scott Walker and Nick Drake. Standout “The Worst in You” is a veritable Pandora’s Box of romantic insecurity married to a melody that could make Brian Wilson weep. MORGAN TROPER