As Free Cake for Every Creature, the Philadelphia-based songwriter Katie Bennett has spent the last couple of years playing her simple, wide-eyed songs at DIY rock shows all across the Northeast. With her upcoming debut LP, Talking Quietly of Anything With You—which favors texture, warmth, and considered arrangements—Bennett is hewing to the career path adopted by indie pop bands ever since Beat Happening kicked on a distortion pedal for 1989's Black Candy. Talking seems to finally represent Bennett as a singular songwriter, one who’s able to transmute her influences—K Records’ ramshackle charm, Yo La Tengo’s slower, stiller moments—into pithy, affecting turns of phrase.

The record’s title track is her most accomplished to date, a shimmering ballad about seeking refuge in the comfort of an old friend while adjusting in a new town. Built around slinking slide work and Bennett’s own whispered lyrics, "Talking" feels conscious of its improvements—at least insomuch as they mirror the personal growth that she sings about. It's a meandering collection of realizations, the sound of slow self-assurance. "We're not old, but we're getting older," Bennett sings, making an obvious conclusion sound staggering.