Set and Setting — Reflectionless A wide-angle look at Set and Setting’s journey could help you argue that it has been the most successful Tampa Bay rock band of the last half-decade. After putting its debut album, Equanimity, to tape in 2012, the band embarked on numerous national tours while pulling European and festival dates off along the way. The release of this year’s Reflectionless was accompanied by a barrage of glowing press from outlets like Noisey, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan and Decibel — and it was well-deserved. The album is a trim 43 minutes with just a handful of songs breaking the seven-minute mark, but guitarist Shane Handal (along with drummers Mark Etherington and Stephen Handal, guitarist Ryan Fugate and bass player Nick Sibilia) colors the record in hundreds of entrancing hues. The pacing also lets the band’s penchant for blending sometimes-violent waves of roaring guitar rattle your core until the shimmering beauty of it all has you slack-jawed at the pretty picture Set and Setting leaves on the table as album closer “Ephemerality” comes crashing to its end. Set and Setting’s lineup changed a bit after the release of Reflectionless (gone is drummer Etherington, and original bassist John Allen Kreft has replaced Sibilia), but Berlin's Pelagic Records has already signed on to release whatever follow-up the boys are looking to start put together in 2018. (Science of Silence/Dunk!)
See a full recap of the year's best local albums in the new issue of Creative Loafing Tampa. Check out the full list via cltampa.com/music. Call your local record store to see if it has this release.
This article appears in Dec 21-28, 2017.