Dropping this album into the hands of one of the characters in The Breakfast Club probably wouldn’t throw off the music continuum. Opening track “When It Calls” rides in on a twinkly synth wave, but the real hook is that chunky bass line that sounds like it came straight out of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. The heavily reverbed toms and light handclaps that power “Into The Sun” act as the perfect counterpoint to the bleary guitar picking and harmonies. When Samuel D’Amelio and Dave Miller sing out lines like, “Out of the rain/into the sun/we can run/one by one,” it’s with that hopeful escapism that worked so well in the great melodies of the ’80s.

The five songs on the Future Unlimited EP have a massive scope, aiming for big themes and tones that wind up busting even at those far-flung seams. “Easy Ways” opens in epic, lock-step bursts of distorted feedback, but even something this abrasive can be reeled into an ephemeral, sugary ’80s pop world by musicians this focused. The darkwave bass and angelic synths that propel the rest of the song intermittently get bashed at by that feedback, but the cool intensity of the vocals cannot be disturbed. “You’ve got to let go of the easy ways,” they intone, leading to a cathartic mass of howling guitar. Throwback rarely feels this genuine, a real accomplishment amongst so much nostalgia.

Essential Tracks: “When It Calls”, “Easy Ways”

Lead single “Conditioning” sounds partially indebted to a surprising influence in Nine Inch Nails, as Pemberton shouts the chorus more aggressively with each iteration; twisted and chopped samples and a heavy drum machine pulse underneath. His examination of the darker edges of his existence (“got monsters in the closet in the middle of the province”) and the determination to get past them is a heart-pumping, head-nodding winner.

Despite the shouted chorus of “Jukebox” (“You get your jukebox away from me”), the album’s tracks hop around, grabbing bits and pieces of genres that suit each tone. That song’s rambunctious fun is paired with skipping, Latin percussion, stuttered guitar, and rich saxophone, immediately followed by the neo-soul organ of “Cheval” (and its accompanying conceit of Pemberton as woman-whisperer, seen best in his boast of being the best “filly whisperer from here to Sainte-Foy”). The heartbroken breakup on “No More Names” grounds its sadness in twinkling, disco-era synth falls and a bass-y backbeat. Each track has a unique flavor that accompanies its lyrical content, the constant remaining Pemberton’s cool determination.

On “Small Deaths”, a stream of disjointed claims comes to a head: “I was once worth something/Everything’s worth something/Nothing’s worth nothing/I’m employee of the month/I got a bunch of those titles but not enough stuff.” Throughout the album, Pemberton is asserting his difference in worldview, style, and production. The tongue-in-cheek “Hype Man” most explicitly achieves this, taking on the personas of those willing to take a bullet for attention, someone demanding a weed-laden entourage or plays at a strip club. “Hype man, I don’t need a fucking hype man” in turn becomes “hype man, yes, I’m the fucking hype man,” Pemberton spinning in circles and finding plenty of inanity to lash out at.

Essential Tracks: “Conditioning”, “Cheval”, and “Hype Man”

As the weather gets hotter, so does the proverbial temperature of a given week’s outpouring of fresh singles. With that said, now that we’re not quite one month out from the summer solstice, this past sennight was of a pleasant prolificacy and quality, featuring appearances from DOOM, Rick Ross, Nicolas Jaar, Childish Gambino, YACHT, and more, plus the first posthumous number from Whitney Houston. As per always, we wish you well with the following 10-piece.

-Mike Madden
Staff Writer

Childish Gambino Feat. Heems – “Tell Me”

Photo by Heather Kaplan

The teaming of Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) and Das Racist’s Heems seemed like a natural fit; their love of pop culture and insistent sense of humor, though, didn’t really translate on their shared track on Heems’ Nehru Jackets mixtape, “Womyn 2″. When the new track opens with Heems chuckling, and repeating the words rap and hip-hop blithely, and then Glover name-drops tUnE-yArDs over a silky smooth, soulful beat, this track shows a marked improvement. Considering the brief length, it’s a fair bet that this comes from the upcoming mixtape, the third impressive new track in as many weeks from the Childish Gambino camp. -Adam Kivel

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Just Friends (Nicolas Jaar and Sasha Spielberg) – “Avalanche” (Leonard Cohen cover)

Covering Leonard Cohen has long been an appealing endeavor for musicians, but minimalist electronic auteurs aren’t usually found engaging in the act. However, Nicolas Jaar is an unusual artist, and this rendition of Cohen’s Songs of Love and Hate cut “Avalanche” doesn’t seem all that unlikely. Snatching up Steven Spielberg’s daughter Sasha for these six minutes, the song plays out through sparse piano and Spielberg’s airy, Regina Spektor-evoking voice. And since CoS is named after one of Spektor’s songs, you’d better believe that’s a compliment. -Mike Madden

Kendrick Lamar – “War Is My Love”

For his contribution to the fresh-out Ubisoft video game Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 3: Future Soldier, Compton’s great young hope Kendrick Lamar aimed to put himself “in the shoes of the Ghosts from the video game and capture that feeling of being willing to wage war and do whatever it takes to claim victory.” The track that was produced from the effort, fittingly, features the Black Hippy rhyming about love for war and the thrills it produces, for good and for ill. Even better, the steady stomp of the beat mirrors boot-camp marching, making the song that much more suited to combat’s mentality. Stream it below, and be on the lookout for CoS’ report on Minnesota’s Lamar-featuring Soundset Festival, running next week. -Mike Madden

Kendrick Lamar – “War Is My Love”

Lupe Fiasco: “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)”

Sampling Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s irrefutably classic “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)”, whose beat is maybe the most distinguished of all time, Lupe Fiasco’s “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)” is a welcome return from the pop excess that was all over his 2011 LP, Lasers. Ever the politically revved-up rhymesmith, Lupe goes in on Hurricane Katrina, Baghdad, and planned obsolescence in a way that might irk some of his opponents. Luckily, just about anybody can get down with that chorus. Off Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, out September 25th. -Mike Madden

Oh No Feat. DOOM – “3 Dollars”

Mysterious, powerful verbalist DOOM’s familiarity with the Jacksons (no, not those Jacksons) produces some outstanding results. After joining forces with older brother Otis (AKA Madlib) for the legendary Madvillainy collaboration album, the masked man has now teamed up with younger brother Michael (aka Oh No) on an early cut from the upcoming album, Ohnomite. As always, DOOM’s dada stream of consciousness is good for a few hearty laughs (“ain’t no thing/but a chicken wing/it’s like the quickening/quit your sickening bickering”), and Oh No’s head-nodding production and slick verse are sound promises of what should be a great disc. -Adam Kivel

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Princeton – “Grand Rapids” (RAC Remix)

Originally released on Princeton’s recent solid LP, Rememberance of Things To Come, “Grand Rapids” started out as a wobbly bit of indie pop excellence. Thanks to a remix from Remix Artist Collective, however, the track has been stripped of its off-kilter synths and frenetic percussion, leaving in their place an sugary summer jam that relies on fuzzy guitar and a simple drum machine to carry the listener off on a light breeze. A strange remix to say the least, RAC took Princeton’s already airy style and pushed them out into the ether rather than amp up the intensity, a wise choice considering the ultimately pleasant result. -Adam Kivel

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Redd Kross – “Researching the Blues”

The lead single/opening title track from the first Redd Kross album in 15 years, “Researching the Blues” is a slice of angular, soaring punk-pop. The group features brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald (the latter plays bass for punk supergroup OFF!), and their power on this track is undeniable. Playing together since they were teenagers in the early 80s, it sounds like the pair hasn’t aged much in the interim, Jeff’s angsty vocals and Steve’s thudding bass powering things to a rich, shout-along aggression. -Adam Kivel

Redd Kross – “Researching The Blues”

Rick Ross feat. Meek Mill – “So Sophisticated”

Between these Maybach Music titans, almost 4.3 million mixtape downloads have been made at DatPiff alone since January (that’s 1.3 milli Rick Ross’ Rich Forever, almost 3.0 for Meek’s Dreamchasers 2). However, this one, “So Sophisticated”, is not from a mixtape, but an album, Ross’ long-awaited God Forgives, I Don’t, out July 31st. After the obligatory Funkmaster Flex drops, a menacing beat kicks in and Rozay is off to the races, waxing far nimbler than he could have even two or three years ago. Later, Meek also spits out a 16 that can be described with adjectives that mean the opposite of the first part of his moniker. -Mike Madden

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Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks – “Celebrate” (Prod. R. Kelly)

From Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” to Biggie Smalls’ “Nasty Girl”, posthumously released singles have topped charts for decades. Maybe the next song to earn that distinction? “Celebrate”, from the film Sparkle and the last song Whitney Houston recorded before her passing. Featuring both a beautiful cameo from American Idol alum Jordin Sparks and keyboard flourishes courtesy of R. Kelly, it’s one grace note that sounds like it was meant to be. “We love you, Whitney,” indeed. -Mike Madden

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YACHT – “I’ll Be Your Mirror”

Photo by Summer Dunsmore

Whether its using a PowerPoint presentation in their live show or putting their philosophy together in a book called The Secret Teaching of the Mystery Lights, electro-poppers YACHT have made a habit of making surprising choices and winding up with outstanding results. The next in that line is their outstanding cover of Velvet Underground and Nico’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror”, in which vocalist Claire Evans smokily pours out her best rendition of the German Nico’s original part. The bleeping, trippy electronics underneath her have a downcast edge to them, wonderfully updating the nearly 50 year old track. The group just recently set out on a tour stretching across the southern U.S. from San Diego, CA to Miami, FL, so here’s hoping they’ll trot out this new gem for the occasion. -Adam Kivel

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As a standalone, the centerpiece of the soundtrack is clearly “TEARS”, the only fully-formed song of the bunch. Whereas the other tracks may have power in this form, they’re clearly designed to coexist with a certain narrative. “TEARS”, on the other hand, could fit onto either of the group’s official LPs, or it could even be a preview from their upcoming third full-length. The incredibly heavy, mechanical synths stutter out, the drum sequences thud-clap away, and vocalist Jake Duzsik’s haunted falsetto lingers in their midst. Almost counter-intuitively (as is their fashion), the group manage to build a danceable groove out of a single metallic note hammering out over and over.

Other parts of the soundtrack sound so plainly different from what we’ve come to expect from HEALTH. “Torture” uses recognizable guitar trills (though swamped in a filter), while the eerie piano plinks and string-like synth lines on “90″ are vaguely reminiscent of the Twin Peaks soundtrack (a reference that fits on a good portion of the disc). Elsewhere, the results are HEALTH tracks in an epic, instrumental bent. Drummer BJ Miller’s always impressive thundering tribal rhythms steal the show on “Max: Kill” and “Guns”, and their electronic wizardry shows on the shimmering angularity of “The Imperial Place” and the swarming “Dead”. While it’ll never match the group’s other LPs (and why should it?), it’s an impressive work to admire. The group’s blend of dance, noise, and punk has always been impressive, but this album proves how versatile and capable these four can be.

Essential Track: “TEARS

The duo’s harmonies on tracks like “Workingman’s Smile” embody their just off-kilter charm. The song rambles on for four and a half minutes, Valentine’s rough falsetto and Elder’s rich, smoky voice lolling out wordy lyrics about how “superceded by a mask of evil, the workingman raises his glass.” Brushed drums, sprawling bass, harmonica, and multiple spacey guitar parts find a united groove despite their continuously altering and seemingly improvised parts. While each part would sound aimless on its own, together, everything makes sense in a floating cloud sort of way.

“Lately I’ve been thinking,” Valentine repeats on “Shit’s Creek”, a telling moment for the band’s demeanor. The keyword for this release (and a large portion of MV & EE’s massive catalog) is reflective. In the middle of honking harmonica, plucking acoustic guitar, and Valentine’s ramblings, what sounds like a thin, deep brass instrument toots out mis-tuned notes, reverbed as if it were just barely echoing out of a well. Valentine’s lyrics here turn to concerned introspection, the brass barely bellowing out concern.

Throughout Space Homestead, Valentine and Elder build interweaving, mantra-like webs of instrumentation that stem from a theme, adding flourishes and differences at every moment. The album sounds like it was written and recorded one lazy day on someone’s back porch, and could perfectly soundtrack such a day. Even in tenser moments (as on the overblown, distorted electric guitar solo nearing the end of “Too Far To See” or the claustrophobic, metallic eeriness in patches of album closer “Porchlight”), there’s always a sense that the looming danger is just that, something looming just far enough away to get a clear, thoughtful look at.

Essential Tracks: “Workingman’s Smile”, “Too Far to See”

LA quartet HEALTH rely on contradictions. Equal parts grit and shine, chaos and control, destruction and fragility, the band’s blend of noise and dance music is a rare beast. After two excellent LPs, the group was tapped to soundtrack the third installment of Rockstar Games’ Max Payne series. Recently, Consequence of Sound had the chance to chat with bassist/noisemaker John Famiglietti about the surprise project, the challenge of writing for a narrative, and the band’s upcoming third album.

How did your work for Max Payne 3 come about? Did they contact you out of the blue? .

“Rockstar Games wants to take you to dinner.”

Were you guys gamers before this project? Were video games on your radar?

Currently, I’m still the only gamer in the band. I was before the project. But all the other guys are getting consoles to play this fucker now.

Did you see or play the game before coming up with your soundtrack? 

Yes, everything we did was based off of video captures of the game being played. However, we didn’t get to play the game until much later in the project.

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“TEARS” is a massive, evocative, fully-formed “song” that doesn’t seem too far off from stuff on your albums. Did your work on the game naturally come out as songs? Was there an effort to create incidental, or less “song-like” material?

Definitely less “song-like.” We really wanted to “score” the game appropriately and support the action as tastefully and effectively as we could. We also created a lot of non-musical audio cues in our style, synced up to events onscreen. With the exception of “TEARS” of course. They wanted us to write a single that would work with the game.

Have you played the game now that your music is in it? 

Yes. Late in the process we went to the offices and I played through the whole game so we could give input on how we thought levels should be scripted in regards to music cues. We’ve spent so many months and working hours with the game intensely, the novelty of seeing our music in a game was long gone months ago. The game is fucking awesome though, I’ve been playing it a ton.

Did Rockstar have any suggestions for the way things should sound? Or did they just let you go?

They really hired us to do our thing. In the beginning, their only suggestions were references to our own catalog, so we just went for it based on what the level looked and felt like, and where it took place in the story. Then they would give us notes based on how it was working with the game/level.

How different was it composing music for a specific narrative as opposed to the way you typically write?

Completely different. With our own music, it’s completely to please the our fans and ourselves. Everything we did here we synced up to the game, and if it didn’t work, we chucked it. Gameplay was the primary concern. Also, Rockstar had to be pleased as well; with our music, there’s no boss.

The soundtrack is going to be released stand-alone. Is this something you’d consider a HEALTH record, or is it something else?

Its definitely not your typical HEALTH record. It’s HEALTH in soundtrack form (plus a track from Brazilian rapper EMICIDA). We tried to make as good of a listening experience as we could while being true to how the music appeared in-game.

Has there been any work towards a third LP?

Yes, we were half finished with our third record when contacted by Rockstar many months ago. Now that we’re finally done with Max, its the only thing we will be working on. I’m getting a testosterone implant to supercharge creativity.

Photography by Renata Raksha.

Frontwoman Beth Ditto has always been the star of the show, her soulful, rich delivery accentuated by the sparse, simple backing. That’s definitely still the case here, her voice as powerful as ever on tracks like “Get A Job” (one of two Higgins co-writer credits). It’s just a shame that the things she’s saying with that voice on that song are so trite. The chorus of “you never know how it’s going to go end up tomorrow/you gotta try, try, try” is groan-inducing on its own, but followed by cliched empowerment lines and the spoken bridge of “I’d love to stay and party but I gotta go to work” (which gets Ke$ha’ed out into a pitch-shifting dip after a couple of repetitions), the whole thing is too silly to believe. Adding a note like “Who’s gonna hire you with your lack of experience?” might be more jokey than attempt at acknowledging the financial crisis, but it’s not funny enough to pull that irony off.

If the idea is that the vocals need to be mindless and vapid so that you can dance your brain out without worrying about them, then there’s nothing better on the disc than “Move In the Right Direction”. The stuttered, insistent synth and choppy guitar from Brace Paine demand you dance along, Hannah Blilie’s simple, cracking drums keeping everything together. The instrumental is pure dancefloor fun. That said, any song that spits out a line of cliches equal to “keeping my head up/looking forward/reminiscing will get you nowhere/never say never/starting over/it’s not perfect but it’s getting closer” essentially admits it’s not something to think very hard about. These lyrics are pointless even for a genre where lyrics take a backseat.

The songs on A Joyful Noise tend to unfurl aimlessly without a memorable hook or point of climax. “Get Lost” uses a synth piano setting featured primarily in early ’90s house music, the whole thing sounding like a cousin to Madonna’s “Vogue”, more cliches about dancing to the beat of a different drum serving as a lackluster chorus. While the funky horns, cowbell, and squelching synths on “Horns” are fun, nothing ever comes of it. There’s nothing to latch onto, no point at which the whole thing comes together. It meanders on for three and a half minutes, coming to a close without really saying anything.

The slower, emptier tracks that let Ditto stretch her voice out do more favors than cluttered ones that demand more words. Despite notes about “the quiet before the storm” on “Into the Wild”, the moments at which her lush delivery floats out over the sparse bass thumps and light disco instrumentation have a soft beauty. The noir-y, “us vs. the world” themes of lead single “Perfect World” revel in their easy power rather than trying to build up to some sort of mindless mantra.

The incredible bass lurch and Ditto’s hooted, wordless riff on the chorus of opening track “Melody Emergency” are smoky and groovy in a way that few tracks are, one of the few instances where the song manages to outweigh the cheese factor. No matter how cliche the song gets (the unnecessary ’80s synth fiddles, lines like “You gotta go a little crazy, release the animal”), that chugging guitar line, the slinky bass, those haunting “oohs” just sound too right to deny. In the end, though, the groans far outweigh the mindless fun. The pop is just too on the nose, too heavy-handed, no matter how unique a voice Ditto has.

Essential Tracks: “Melody Emergency”, “Perfect World”

With huge new albums dropping this week from Killer Mike, Tenacious D, Beach House, Best Coast, and more, it seems a little blasphemous to be looking ahead to the next crop of discs. That said, the mp3s we have for you this week are good enough to take up a solid portion of your listening time. Between a peek into a video game soundtrack from HEALTH, the return of sludge metal heroes Baroness, and a NEW TRACK from indie-psychers Yeasayer, this ten-pack should whet your appetite for another crop of stellar album releases sprouting up in the near future.

-Adam Kivel
Senior Editor

Baroness – “Take My Bones Away”

Savannah, Georgia sludge monsters Baroness return with “Take My Bones Away”, the first cut from their upcoming third LP, Yellow & Green (a thematic title after the Red Album and Blue Record). The aggression and noise are cooled down just a little under some studio mastery, but the track still rocks damn hard, particularly the sky-cracking guitar riffs two and a half minutes in. Vocalist John Baizley’s notes about “picking up visceral tendons and broken remains” prelude the emotional haunting of the album’s title, the five minute epic boding well for the July 17th album drop date. -Adam Kivel

Curren$y feat. 2 Chainz – “Capitol”

Songs like these are why Curren$y’s brand of rap is consistently described as “breezy,” “fluid,” “effortless,” etc. Over a beat highlighted by wiggling bass and freewheeling flute, Spitta lets us in on what makes him the freshest coming out of NOLA: “My reputation precedes me, they already know/I keep it capital ‘G,’ apostrophe ‘D’.” (It works better in the song than on paper, obviously.) On the other hand, the ATL’s 2 Chainz, following other guest verses on the likes of G.O.O.D. Music’s “Mercy” and Drake’s “No Lie”, offers a pretty-forgettable 16 about Rick Ross and photography and having a criminal mind and stuff. Still, there’s nothing here that can’t be relished to some extent. Curren$y’s The Stoned Immaculate, from which “Capitol” comes, arrives June 5th. -Mike Madden

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Family Band – “Night Song”

The shuddering, heavily reverbed percussion, arpeggiated guitar plinks, and Kim Krans’ full-throated enchantress vocals  on “Night Song” are a perfect first taste of upstate New Yorkers Family Band’s sophomore LP (Grace & Lies , due July 24th from No Quarter). The cinematic, haunting, gothy soundscape quietly seeps into the subconscious. The bassy piano rumbles that begin to percussively shade the last bit of the track are seriously deep, intoning the final nails in the eerie coffin. -Adam Kivel

Family Band – “Night Song”

HEALTH – “Tears”

When it was announced that HEALTH would be soundtracking the new video game Max Payne 3, there was some uncertainty about what the results would sound like. Would it be electronic soundscapes for simmering in the background of the action? The gritty electronic bursts, feedback howls, and haunting vocals dominating “Tears” (the first released cut from the full soundtrack to be released on May 23rd), though, sound just like the HEALTH we’ve come to know and love. The strength of this song without the accompanying game bodes well for fans of the band who don’t get into gaming, as well as providing some amazing tunes for gamers new to these noise rockers. -Adam Kivel

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Holograms – “Chasing My Mind”

The first single from Stockholm punks Holograms’ self-titled debut, “Chasing My Mind” is two and a half minutes of punk’s immediacy fused with adventurous synth riffs and sneering (but not too sneering) vocals. It’s the kind of song whose influences could be attributed to anybody from late-’70s CBGB faves to the band’s reunited Swedish brethren Refused, but let’s just call it an inviting taste of what should be, at the very least, an above-average LP. Holograms shows up July 10th via Captured Tracks. -Mike Madden

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Island Twins – “Creepaway”

After the adorable wonder that was “The Wolf’s Lair”, “Creepaway” is the second taste of Queens trio Island Twins’ self-titled debut LP, out June 1st. With jangly guitar, skipping drums, and call and response vocals, the Unicorns hang pretty heavily as an influence. As drummer Tony del Cid and Erik Brauer’s guitar wash into a shimmery stumble, sister Meagan Brauer forcefully repeats the line “don’t call me back.” If you’re looking for an under-the-radar indie summer album, this track should point in the right direction. -Adam Kivel

Island Twins – “Creepaway”

Kanye West feat. Bon Iver — “Lost in the World” (Tiësto Remix)

It’s got to be pretty unlikely that Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon knew that his “Woods” would one day be sampled by Kanye West, and it’s got to be even more unlikely that one day that same sample would make it into a Tiësto remix. So, yeah, this remix of “Lost in the World”, the penultimate track from West’s prog-rap masterwork, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is pretty confounding — yet also enjoyable, if you go in understanding that it’s of the same gargantuan dance fare the Dutch super-DJ has for years used to fill gazillion-capacity venues. Over the course of seven minutes, we hear snippets of West’s verses from the original, Vernon’s auto-tuned vocals, and some of the poem the late Gil Scott-Heron contributed to MBDTF’s “Who Will Survive in America?”. Rave on? -Mike Madden

Stagnant Pools – “Dead Sailor”

I can’t describe this one any better than CoS’ own Michael Roffman did in our original post of “Dead Sailor”, the second song on Stagnant Pools’ debut full-length, Temporary Room: “Scrapping together the best parts of Joy Division, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Mark Lanegan, the Enas brothers [Bryan and Douglass] kick up enough aural dust to make up for the lack of, well, having any other support.” However, I will add that those best parts, at least as they’re reflected here, include the first act’s shadowed vocals, the second’s taste for fuzz, and the third’s gloomy-imagery-inciting lyrics – which is to say this cut is excellent. Temporary Room drops August 7th via Polyvinyl. -Mike Madden

Stagnant Pools – “Dead Sailor”

The Tallest Man on Earth – “1904″

The third LP from Swedish folk singer Kristian Matsson (aka The Tallest Man on Earth), There’s No Leaving Now, drops June 12th via Dead Oceans, and album track”1904″ is the umpteenth showing of Matsson’s seemingly instinctive sense of how beautifully less can be more. Though driven by steady acoustic strums, the track also has a second, clean, and electric guitar that adds effortless melody (think of how the six-strings work in, say, “Wild Horses”). And Matsson, ever the inspired lyricist, sings of the sun being a friend, robbers made to go through his window, and, of course, the early 20th century, all with that familiar croak of a voice working the way only those of the best folk singers know how. -Mike Madden

The Tallest Man on Earth – “1904″

Yeasayer – “Henrietta”

When they announced “NEW SONGS?” and tour dates a couple of weeks ago, it was unclear whether Yeasayer meant a new album, an EP, a single, or even just some odds and ends. For now, that uncertainty remains, but with a dash of new material in the spacey, dubby “Henrietta”. Featuring softly cooed repetitions of “Oh Henrietta, we can lay around forever,” the tune drips with lovestruck, sugary goodness. Chris Keating’s effected vocals and the twinkly synth trilling work pretty similarly to their last disc, but there’s something a little sweeter, less psychedelic. -Adam Kivel

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Manson, drummer Butch Vig, bassist Duke Erikson, and guitarist Steve Marker know how to make music sound right, no matter its foundation (but particularly so if it leans towards the ’90s). Vig was behind the boards for Nirvana’s Nevermind, Sonic Youth’s Dirty, and Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish, among many others. Marker worked with bands like L7 and the underrated Killdozer. These four have the pedigree of a Westminster champion, and it shows in their five albums in front of the microphones.

After the general wear and tear experienced by any band that’s toured for 10 years, the band went on “indefinite hiatus” in 2005. However, Not Your Kind of People picks up the old sound without any hesitation, as if the time had never passed. The twinkling waves of piano that open “Control” is pure production mastery, and the sludgy bass and dark, relationship-based lyrics (“I let my guard down/I let the truth out”) are vintage Garbage.

The title track, though, wallows in a melancholy nostalgia that makes sense considering the context. The multi-tracked vocals find a squad of Mansons cooing some angst, the guitar riffs shade the edges, and the electronics keep things off-kilter. But lolling lines like, “we are not your kind of people/we find when you start talking/there’s nothing but white noise” over a loping, aimless instrumental like this can’t recapture any of the gloom or rage that the great ’90s acts had to offer. Similarly, the claim in “Man On a Wire” that looking in the mirror leads to “a big black beast looking back at me” is shrug-enducing, despite Manson’s best sneer, hard-ratcheting guitar, and thumping drums.

Even at its weakest moments, though, Not Your Kind of People is still as good as any mediocre album released in the late ’90s. The big, dubby, noir guitar hooks on lead single “Blood for Poppies” would’ve fit right on alt-rock radio, as would the discordant electronic gurgles and distrustful lyrics on “I Hate Love”. The British single “Battle In Me” evokes early Garbage material like “Supervixen” with its concussive, stop-start riffs and electronic flourishes. When Manson sings, “Let’s take a torch to the past and the future,” one can’t help but to assume she’s not sincere; the past has become Garbage’s bread and butter.

That said, the whole album sounds like an anomaly. This isn’t the kind of music that garners a lot of radio-play the way it did ten years ago. It’s not the type of music that gets the indie kids going, either. The appeal then, lies largely for Garbage fans (who have been salivating over this new release for a long while), those that haven’t left the ’90s behind, those for whom grungy arena pop is the genre that never dies.

That said, the big missteps are few and far between (as is to be expected from such consummate professionals). Manson sounds just as strong and limber as ever, at turns menacing and sultry. Vig’s drumming fits in the pocket throughout, though it does get buried in the mix a bit too often. Marker’s riffs never fail to generate some electricity, and Eriksen provides the low-end to keep everything sewn together. Aside from the aforementioned pair of tracks that hit dark pop highs akin to Garbage’s best, this is just another solid disc from solid musicians, no more, no less.

Essential Tracks: “Control”, “Battle in Me”

Where Heems’ Queens bravado brings out a line like “I’m fucking great at rapping,” Vazquez has always seemed more laid-back, perhaps (hello, stereotypes) due to his growing up in sunny California. 51 was recorded in Oakland and features Californian producers and guests, and Vazquez is at home in their midst. He sounds confident and comfortable, doling out that trademark weird. On highlight “La Pinata”, he works off of a Mr. Rogers sample (seriously) and slick beat from standout producer Amaze 88, the whole time “styling, a wild king, a lion.”

Tracks like “Donda” should remind listeners of Vazquez’ serious skills. The track stands as a one-minute testament to his ability, including brilliant lines like, “So Diddy with it/ looking for a check with like 50 digits.” When he wants to be, he’s just as “fucking great at rapping” as Heems, and here he clearly wants to be. Sure, there are plenty of recycled lines, but as A.D. says on “Arrested Development”, “That’s art, man.” The repetition here (and everywhere on Das Racist’s collective output) simultaneously pushes the Dada aesthetic and insists on a sort of brand identity, forcing catchphrases into your head while getting you to realize catchphrases are ridiculous. That said, the recycled lines found on 51 are recycled because they’re good, and the new lines are good enough to be recycled in the future.

Essential Tracks: “La Pinata”, “Arrested Development”, and “Donda”