Pitchfork

Following the axiom of "if it ain't broke, pummel it some more until it is," this track from Parts & Labor is a welcome and familiar follow-up to the accessible screech of last year's Stay Afraid, with the same frenetic drumming, dentist-drill keyboards, and chest-beating vocals. The only way to sound any bigger: horns, which, just before some double-speed heart palpitations via bass drum, introduce a new melody on a megalograndiose chorus that makes you want to leap over a canyon on a skateboard on fire. On the rest, the band's idea of growth-- round vocals, more quiet-to-loud dynamics-- are common indicators of "maturity," but when your drummer is this relentless and you switch out your guitars for electronic squealing that eviscerates ear canals and chest cavities, the results sound just as fresh as the last album.

MP3: > Parts & Labor: "Fractured Skies"
[from Mapmaker; due 05/22/07 on Jagjaguwar/Brah]