Sometimes the best albums creep up on us with little fanfare and little in the way of hype. Sometimes they aren't bombastic, self-important media darlings. Sometimes their music underscores their inherent beauty. The Last Beautiful Day is one of those albums.

New Buffalo is Melbourne-based songwriter Sally Seltmann, with production assistance from husband Darren Seltmann (The Avalanches) and a few guests (Beth Orton provides harmonies on "Inside", and Dirty Three drummer Jim White shows up on three tracks). The Last Beautiful Day approaches like a spring shower, or a blast of cool air on an otherwise scorching summer day: Seltmann's singular vision has yielded a refreshing, charming, endearing collection of songs. Her thin voice is nothing to get inordinately excited about, but she uses it masterfully -- it floats effortlessly over warm organ and synth tones, repetitive sax riffs, sparse, clear guitars and simple drumbeats. Songs like "I've Got You And You've Got Me (Song Of Commitment)" are disarming in their lushness: Seltmann uses her few sonic tools with an ear for completeness, resulting in arrangements that sound surprisingly full despite their lack of complexity. Even The Last Beautiful Day's simplest songs -- the piano-driven "Yes", the acoustic guitar-heavy "Come Back" -- provide a beauty in their two parts (instrument and voice) that the most complicated pop arrangements fail to capture. Seltmann's use of self-harmonization on songs such as "Time To Go To Sleep" -- like Leslie Feist on Let It Die -- allows her to branch out a little on the melody. Unlike Feist, here the songs don't wilt under their own heaviness.

Seltmann's lyrics are equally disarming. Her melodies are simple and hummable, and the ease with which she delivers the lyrics adds an extra layer of polish. She's perfectly honest and vulnerable: "Caught me in a rush / I hate myself for this / Longing to lay down beside you / And tell you how it is" she sings in "No Party". "It's true, it's true / I've been avoiding you / When all you gave to me / Was so pure and so complete," she adds in "Come Back". New Buffalo's organic electro-pop is a quiet surprise, and one that deserves to endure. When Seltmann asks, "What happens when I say / 'This may be the last beautiful day?'" in "I've Got You And You've Got Me", the answer is as simple as the song itself: as long as New Buffalo continues to release albums as lovely as The Last Beautiful Day, that question will never come up.