Boston quintet Kimone blends prog-influenced arrangements, mathy rhythms, and emotive hooks on their second album, The Mill. There is a fine sheen of studio magic here, but this sense of commercial polish never obscures the immediacy of Kimone's songs. Their twin guitar line-up makes quite an impression on "The Author Surrenders," as does its syncopated bass line. Equally stirring are the spacey guitar leads on "Stop Stay Calm." Particularly effective is the band's use of vocals, on soaring passages such as the layered chorus for "Coma Comfort" and the falsetto-buoyed verse of "Divorce is an Easy Sell."

While a lot of their songs lead with forceful dramatic thrust, Kimone is also able to craft more supple arrangements, as they do on the ballad "Even Science Hears it Loud" and the lush instrumental "Intro." Extended songs like "Its Grace will Wash Over Our Wounds" and "Pitiless, the Miles Foresake" supply an abundance of melodic interest. My only, very occasional, reservation is that Kimone is a bit stern in their presentation; I wished that they might explore lightness of affect somewhere along the way. That said, The Mill is a strong dose of ambitious music-making, the kind of record that goes a long way towards rehabilitating the neo-prog moniker. - Christian Carey