Era

Disappears have been honing their gritty noir-rock without cease for the past few years, but with Era they’ve made a quantum leap. This is intense, texturally rich, monomaniacal, terrifying, danceable, epic. References to a romance fraught with grief pop up, and song titles like “Power” and “Elite Typical” barely scratch the surface of the anguish on display here. Makes so much other music seem emotionally small-stakes in comparison. Holy cow. All tracks rule, but 1, 3, 6 are particularly mind-blowing. No FCCs detected, though in several places the lyrics are frustratingly hard to decipher, even after multiple listens.

1. *(3:51)—Mid-tempo but super loud. Scary as hell, truly. Unnervingly repetitive like Suicide, but with 1000+ guitars. Free-fall climax, singer screams “Wake up!” over and over. Feedback.
2. (4:12)—Medium-slow, far-out, sexy, wah-wah noir-blues.
3. *(9:33)—Fast, relentless, spacious. The primal, hypnotic, one-note rock of My Disco trapped in a tunnel deep underground. When I first heard this I flipped out. This would get good play at Satan’s disco.
4. (3:46)—Slowdance for vampires. Mournfully pretty, even in its heavier parts.
5. (4:11)—Mid-tempo, driving, bare-bones, tripped out rock ’n’ roll. Like a twisted parody of the Madness song “Our House.”
6. *(7:53)—Fast, massive, psycho-meditation post-punk. Elliptical, angry lyrics about romance and social class. The extended coda features a killer goth-Western bassline and molten guitars; I’d be fine if it went on for another half hour.
7. (6:40)—Slow and subdued. This is dank music. Dank, dank, dank. And creepy. Sweet dreams.