Guitar based noise rock. Covers all the ground between experimental dissonance and moments that really rock out. Neu/krautrock beats abound, as well as a lot of very interesting guitar work. This is an example of a band that has aged like wine: kept up the good aspects of their early raw sound, while at the same time developing it in a way that still sounds fresh. Most songs are great and up to par with most of their good stuff. Some songs have this alt-rock sound that I don not really like that much (but others might). In any case, this is a really good album.

Picks: 4,12,2,5 *** No FCCs ***

1. strong rocking opener sets the tone for the rest of the album
*2. intro sounds kinda alt-rock, but it quickly gets this nice repetitive krautrock style beat and gets pretty rocking. end is nice and mellow
3. again an underlying neu-style beat with some guitar noodling. quite a bit melodic
**4. slow melodic intro, dissonant guitar, creates this warm fuzzy feeling... then it starts rocking a little bit, but always stays a bit introspective. nice, down to earth vocals
*5. bit of a post-punk flair here. kinda echo and the bunnymen. nice little buildup
6. piano entry into another rhythm section opener, dissonant guitars, standard Kim Gordon vocals, soaring guitars towards the end
7. very Velvety, especially in the vocals. could have been in White Light White Heat.
8. slow and dreamy intro, then picks up. sounds like could have come out of Goo. remarkably, Kim Gordon is singing kinda softly...
9. more alt-rock sound. not convinced about this one
10. i don't like the vocals. otherwise a good song
11. hmm... sounds like kinda lame whiny indie rock
**12. long track, starts slow and kind of menacing, with ethereal vocals by Kim Gordon, then builds up into huge noisy dissonance that moves on to a weird melodic bit with weird hushed vocals about being dead... hell yeah, nice way to end an album