Luke Temple, mastermind of experimental indie-pop act Here We Go Magic, began his career noodling with folk tunes in his Brooklyn bedroom. So the stripped-bare, all-acoustic format of his fifth solo LP feels less like a reinvention than a return to roots. The obvious reference points are classic singer-songwriters like Paul Simon and Nick Drake, two consistent influences on his plainspoken vocal style—and setting aside Here We Go Magic’s forays into Krautrock and psychedelia, the comparisons flow on a deeper level.The arrangements are disarmingly raw with flickers of fingerpicked guitar, pulses of double-bass, streaks of cello—all emphasizing the natural warmth of his singing. (A crucial element of “The Birds of Late December” is a barely there tap-taptap on a snare rim.) On several ruminative story-songs, Temple speak-sings revelations about cultural shifts (“The Complicated Men of the 1940s”) and a high school bully discovering inner peace after a car crash (“The Case of Louis Warren”). But even on this capital-F folk album, he can’t help but nudge toward art-rock: Both the galloping “Estimated World” and “Smashing Glass,” with its falsetto swoops and eerie, Asian-tinged guitar figure, feel like Here We Go Magic tracks without the typical layered overdubs. With A Hand Through the Cellar Door, Temple has pressed an artistic reset button, rediscovering the elemental charm of his songwriting.