The product of many months spent by John Pelant hammering and tinkering away at songs alone in his basement, Pennied Days is the sophomore album from Minneapolis-based group Night Moves, who released their first full-length, Colored Emotions, in 2012. Teaming up with producer John Agnello (who is known for helping Kurt Vile and Sonic Youth tighten their sound), Pelant and his musical cohort and bassist Micky Alfano produced a solid collection of polished cuts that benefit from Agnello’s hand. With Night Moves’ label urging Pelant to continue to hone the tunes in favor of a quick follow-up release, Days’ songs went through multiple rewrites, solidifying their strong rhythmic base and sound structures. The results allow Pelant’s drawn-out, melodic vocals and soaring guitar lines to truly take center stage. “It still has a lot of woody, warm, natural-sounding stuff,” he says. “But it’s a better synthesis of that kind of space-and-folk-rock shit that was present on the first [record].” Album single “Denise, Don’t Wanna See You Cry” mixes an ‘80s aura with a Ryan Adams-esque vocal attack, and tracks like “Hiding in the Melody” give Pelant’s voice space to play around his piercing guitar lines in the smoky, soothing ether of sound that the band has almost perfected.