Nu-Clear Sounds

While lacks the immediate appeal of 's previous outing, , over the course of repeated listens it emerges as the group's most bracing effort to date; the opening maelstrom of immediately sets the tone for the record's snarling approach -- while there are a few gorgeously pensive moments, like the aptly titled it's otherwise the raw, straight-ahead album the band always threatened to make. The addition of second guitarist galvanizes 's songs, giving them a dimension and scope they previously lacked -- is above all big and loud, but under its tumultuous surface lies 's most mature and poignant material yet, from the grippingly elegiac to the sweetly romantic Subtleties aside, however, is first and foremost a record, with all of the snotty swagger and attitude that the label implies -- at a point in history at which old-fashioned noise and bombast were at their most unfashionable, bravely made an album that demands to be heard at maximum volume, and it's a glorious thing to behold. ~ Jason Ankeny