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Sometimes, it seems like a piece (or style) of music can define the mood of a situation: the same set of curves, at the same speed, in the same car, can feel a lot different depending on whether you’re playing The Propellerheads or Tears for Fears. Not to mention where the volume’s set. Sometimes, a well-timed piece of music can even rudder a situation – perhaps a fading party resurrected by a well-queued raucous piano rock song? Or a little Joss Stone?

Brad Senne’s album The Shapes that Shift Us is precisely not this kind of music – it’s the converse. It’s a perfect fit for certain times when the mood is already set, and you’re just looking for the right piece of music to go along with that mood. It’s acoustic, but sometimes it’s driving. It’s folk, but sometimes it’s symphonic. It’s happiness, but sometimes it’s longing.

“Drift Gently” – my favorite track on The Shapes that Shift Us – makes me think of curling up in a big comfortable chair, with a piping hot cup of tea and a perfect blanket, watching Kelly read on the couch. In the undertones of Senne’s guitar, I can hear the corners of my lips curl up into a barely-perceptible smile as I raise my mug and the smell of jasmine steam washes over my face. If I owned a convertible, I think I’d want to listen to “Dance till Dawn” with the top down on a shoreline road somewhere. And if a family vacation ever finds us renting a clapboard-sided beach house in a tiny ocean town somewhere, I hope there’s a CD player so I can play “Caroline to Maine”.

The Shapes That Shift Us by Brad Senne

Exquisitely recorded and played with just the right blend of precision and swagger, The Shapes that Shift Us is one of many acoustic albums that, it’s possible, are the reason that God gave us great headphones and stereos. It begs to be listened to on a beautifully-detailed hi-fi system, and it sounds great through my Grados, but somehow it seems it might be just as fitting – albeit in a different scene – played through the raspy paper speakers of a bakelite-clad radio. No matter how you plan to listen to it, you can buy a copy of The Shapes that Shift Us DRM-free, and in a variety of formats, at Magnatune.com.