Off-kilter, bent and sort of mathy indie rock. Owls (4-piece) is one of the iterations of seminal Chicago band Cap'n Jazz that released their first album at the beginning of the aughts. Instead of raw energy smeared with emotion, in the group's formation as Owls, they pursued a subdued, oblique, abstract, mangled sound with complex time signatures and nonsensical lyrics. It was a glorious experiment and that self-titled record remains quite special in its fully-formed, left-field take on post-emo, indie rock. The band have slowly regrouped years later and put together the pieces to do this record, which finds them less yelpy, composing more concise songs, and in more accessible territory, generally. The lyrics are still bizarre, but Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc)'s vocals are now in key and less desperate. Most all tracks are great (skip 3 and 8). Didn't catch any FCCs.

*1. Slow churning, backing vox, slight snarl. Leads well into 2, play together (3:11)
**2. Upbeat (slightly off) indie rock with tambourine and gorgeous, rhythmic outro. Soaring. (3:36)
3. Lions eating zookeepers, almost a start/stop grunge feel. (2:45)
4. Weaving, topsy turvy feel. "It's cute how you assume / your experience of the world is the world." Mid-tempo, really good. (3:36)
5. Big distorted chorus with reverberating cymbals, somewhat jerky drums and intricate, clean guitar. (3:33)
*6. Very complex structure seamlessly lapping over itself. Tuneful enough and still unpredictable and tricky. Great. (4:47)
**7. Mixture of mathy guitar slabs, what I would call a big bad grisly take on disco, and snarling, ringing, barking over toms. (5:42)
8. Jerky back-and-forth before breakdown and then slow abrasive burn. "All Chicago smells like chocolate" (3:33)
**9. Distorted slow rhythmic (somewhat noisy) churn alternates with near-funky groove. Definite highlight, even though it may not sound so from the description, leads well into 10, play together. (5:11)
*10. Mid tempo, dark rock with some nice backing vocals. Straightforward. (3:05)