Daniel Folmer

Denton's Daniel Folmer is a prolific 20-something wunderkind who somehow found time between delivering pizzas and playing pick-up hockey games to release two CDs in six months. Folmer's debut, Wear Headphones, was a 22-song indie rock paean to caffeine and contradictions that showed equal parts gall and slacker intelligence. Gloria is a more attentive and downcast set, featuring 10 songs that focus on the fitful process of growing up and dealing with newfound responsibilities. In the stunning and seductive opening cut, "Serotonin," Folmer asks, "Do you want to bear my child or were those sentiments serotonin's side effects?" as drummer Cody Seals lays down a morose groove, mimicking the song's contemplation of love and commitment.

Throughout Gloria Folmer forsakes the playfully nerdy aspects of Headphones and instead plunges into a mature examination of relationships and rites of passage. "I don't have the fortitude, and you don't have the time," sings Folmer on "Warmth of a Dryer," looking for answers when he knows none are available. With an emphasis on distorted guitar accompaniment, Daniel Folmer is on the precipice of something brilliant. Looking at the obvious from odd angles, this pasty-faced youngster deserves a full band and a sympathetic producer in order to turn his late-night diary entries into legitimately transcendent moments of insight and intensity.