One-sentence reviews #9

Wire
Change Becomes Us (2013)
(Pink Flag)

Post-punk football chants and jingles, the vices of a veteran act with the freedom and cachet to dick around inanely, albeit more cheerily than usual.

***

DJ Koze
Amygdala (2013)
(Pampa)

The parts that sound like methamphetamined Everything But the Girl circa Temperamental are a nostalgic rush that makes me want to go shopping for clothes in a 1999 mall, but the absence of hooks (save some contributed by well-chosen samples) shatters the illusion.

***

The Haxan Cloak
Excavation (2013)
(TriAngle)

!! CAUTION !! - Dirgecraft Through the Ages, undoubtedly to be accompanied by complimentary Rothko coffee table book.

***

Arab Strap
Monday at the Hug & Pint (2003)
(Chemikal Underground)

!! CAUTION !! - All of the things about the early-2000s indie boom that griped the hell out of me at the time (and caused me to stay away from modern alt-rock for several years) in one package: snide, witless, empty, rote in performance and emotion -- but perhaps not as bad as I'm predisposed to hear it.

***

Cake
Comfort Eagle (2001)
(Columbia)

"Short Skirt / Long Jacket" still charming and funny, the rest more melodic and spirited than usual but still easy to describe in full as "minor" just as much as this perpetually growth-stunted band's whole discography; now-concluded experiment in trying to decipher my long-ago enthusiasm for them an utter failure.