Dead Rider
The Raw Dents
(Tizona)
It’s rare to get a recording that’s as interesting, experimental and well-produced, all at the same time, as The Raw Dents. The album is simultaneously strange and seductive, addicting in a deeply voyeuristic sense. The compositions here barely maintain enough structure to even be called “songs,” though you can hear some Trent Reznor-ish Midwestern pop-industrial influences mixed in with bizarre octave pedal-laden guitar solos, deep synth bass and a few crazy saxophone parts a la Mr. Bungle. Primary vocalist Todd Rittman has a voice that sounds a lot like David Bowie’s on the Diamond Dogs or Aladdin Sane albums, and his ghostly, dark-psychedelic delivery spreads a theatrical layer of avant-garde butter on top of the general madness. Cool stuff. —Tom Sturm
*
Wild Beasts
Smother
(Domino)
The Wild Beasts’ third album plays out like a waking dream. Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto wanders over a sparse soundscape, the music rising and falling without ever reaching a crescendo. Smother takes the band in a new direction, delving into electronic music, pairing it with clean guitars and understated percussion. Thorpe’s vocals stay in the soaring heights that showcase him best, and the album is far more atmospheric and spacey than either of the band’s previous releases. The album also moves The Wild Beasts into another new direction: every song on the album is a love song. Lyrically the band is growing up, asking questions. Smother is a mature, intelligent album, well worth a listen. —Josh Ernst
*
The Grownup Noise
This Time with Feeling
(independent)
Much of this album is a pleasant, progressive pop drive through the suburbs of modern human experience. It occasionally takes the time to wryly acknowledge various aspects of behavior like custom license plates on passing cars, spotted in fun or perhaps a neurotic need to classify thoughts and feelings. Sometimes it half-heartedly curses at other drivers, but then chugs dutifully along with something like melancholic resignation. This sophomore effort is a little less “rock” than its predecessor; instrumental arrangements are rich and complex, and the embellishing string parts are sparse and very tastefully used. There’s still something Beatle-esque going on here via XTC or Live, and a bit of bleak, Elliot Smith-style wall-gazing for answers that aren’t there lurking in the depressing but jovially sung lyrics. If this vehicle has a problem, it’s that it’s stuck on cruise control. —Tom Sturm
