Pitchfork

Considering its proximity to Touch and Go's 25th anniversary shindig, this reunion album couldn't drop at a more apropos time. Combining the sounds of Jesus Lizard, Girls Against Boys, and pretty much every Steve Albini-led band, Uzeda are essentially a T&G cover band with Kim Deal on vocals. And despite being the band's first album in eight years, Stella finds these Sicilians pummeling in mid-season form, hitting every mark in their noise rock assault.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Albini's parked himself behind the boards, channeling reams of shit-stomping rage with the twist of each knob. The team-up again works wonders as Albini injects a bristled edge into Uzeda's sound, which doesn't naturally exude an immediate pissed-off aura. Opener "Wailing" drags its clanking feet so laboriously and loosely it could almost qualify as shoegaze-Shellac. Giovanni Nicosia and Agostino Tilotta's jagged guitars casually stab at a plodding bassline, while frontwoman Giovanna Cacciola provides unintelligible sing-song coos, a nursery rhyme told over a brewing storm. "What I Meant When I Called Your Name" tightens up this formula, swirling around a rough'n'tumble noise-blues riff and culminating in a femme-David Yow rant from Cacciola over screeching guitars. Occasionally though the band takes a chill pill, particularly when Cacciola's raspy vox combines with playful, more hook-based ax noodling to form faux-Breeders track "Time Below Zero".

Unfortunately, such changeups come too seldom on Stella, and too many tracks here sound stuck in second gear. At times, Stella blurs the line between consistency and homogeneity, which is probably nitpicking except that eight tracks in less than half an hour leaves little to explore. Still, closer "Steam, Rain and Other Stuff" wraps up the record nicely, with a herky-jerky drum beat and Cacciola's howls summarizing the entire album in a three-minute curtain call. While an album able to be condensed into such little space reflects poorly on the band's dynamism, Stella would still make a nice addition to any noise rock fanatic's collection.