No Age: Everything in Between

For everything LA post-punk duo No Age lack in subtlety, they more than make up for with an innate understanding of dynamics. Sounding in places like Sonic Youth, Everything in Between – the follow-up to 2008's critically lauded Nouns – constantly explores the relationship between melodic immediacy and primal blasts of noise. First single Glitter starts like a lo-fi My Sharona before being enveloped by shards of guitar squall, while the lovely Chem Trails rolls along nicely before firecrackers explode beneath a noodly guitar solo. Elsewhere, the visceral Fever Dreaming is juxtaposed with the percussive jangle of the Deerhunteresque Common Heat and a handful of abstract instrumentals help create texture on an album that relies mainly on a visceral relationship between drums and guitar. Dean Allen Spunt's fairly blank vocals may have trouble conveying anything other than a downcast shrug, but musically, Everything in Between manages to run the full gamut.