So the band doesn't bring the heat, but instead offers an icy veneer, an effect accomplished via multiple avenues. In hypnotic opener "Like Bullets," it's the stoic, stalking bassline; on stomper "Filler is Wasted" and rangy "Counterfeit Rules," it's the fuzzed-out guitar tones. On the hooky title track, it's a simple lead-footed kick-drum beat; on the electro-tinged "Between the Rent," singer-songwriter Jordan Jeffares offers detached vocals and obstinate lyrics. The charm of Snowden's debut is its understated authenticity: Underneath all the accoutrements, these are Jeffares's bedroom songs, and it's not hard to extrapolate to their simpler days as anguished acoustic ballads.

Snowden play Sin-é Thursday.