Retreating a bit from the wide-ranging experimentation of 2007's SKELLICONNECTION, Canadian singer-songwriter Chad VanGaalen favors a low-key form of indie folk-rock on his third album. Featuring his most direct and immediately appealing set of pop songs yet, with none of the brief noise interludes that decorated his first two albums, SOFT AIRPLANE features impressively varied tunes like the Beck-like rocker "Poisonous Heads" and the pretty but unsettling falsetto reverie "Molten Light." This is VanGaalen's most accomplished and intriguing album so far.