One of indie rock's great also-rans, Clem Snide, have been an on-again, off-again vehicle for Eef Barzelay's wry, country-inflected songcraft since the Nineties. Their latest album, Hungry Bird, begins with an abstract ditty that sounds like Michael Stipe fronting Pavement, and evolves into a meditation on maleness and mortality. The melodies and arrangements, spiked with trombone and banjo, are simultaneously edgy and refined. And if romantic optimism is in short supply, as Barzelay suggests in "With All My Heart," well, there's still joy in singing about it.