ROBERT DEEBLE

In the six years since his last album, this Seattle singer-songwriter earned a master’s in psychology. That explains lines like, “I feel the guilt, I feel the shame of an existential rush of temporal things.” Deeble is obviously a keen observer of human behavior, but what’s remarkable about Heart Like Feathers is how conversational and easygoing he sounds. This is true even when he’s at his most reflective, contemplating heartbreak, death, Woody Allen films or the insufficiently watered “gardens in our soul.” Maybe he figures the accompanying guitar, piano and strings are somber enough—and that in order to get these plaintive folk ballads over, he’d better sing them with a little life.