Four unsent letters written to his young nieces and nephews provide the frame for Mulvey’s Letters from a Flying Machine, his follow-up to 2007’s Notes from Elsewhere. Normally Mulvey’s songs are carefully constructed, so it’s a bit odd that some of the short spoken-word pieces on Flying Machine seem forced. The exception is “Vlad the Astrophysicist,” a meditation on the nature of intelligence and the limitations of the universe. The concept of limitation figures heavily in the songs as well, but Mulvey’s upbeat outlook, superb melodies, and the mellow folk/jazz arrangements always find the silver lining in every cloud. Case in point, “The Mailman,” which touches on the cycles of life and death, winter and summer, and the way poetry (and by implication, music) can help us make sense of it all. Mulvey’s sparse, chiming guitar adds a jaunty feel to the melancholy lyric. Other standouts include “Windshield,” which captures a small town life struggling with the cruel winter (with David Goodrich’s slide guitar adding chilly accents), the jazzy Gypsy swing of “Some People,” which brings to mind the arch work of Mose Allison, and the subtle acoustic funk of “What's Keeping Erica?”, a song about an enigmatic woman who seems to glide through life's tribulations unscathed. Mulvey’s understated guitar is the highlight of the minimal arrangements, with Paul Kochanski’s sympathetic bass giving the tunes a subtle, understated drive. (Signature Sounds, signaturesounds.com)