Alright, I’ll say it: this here album is a regular In-n-Out Burger. The fact that the reference occurred to me on a noise-only basis is only made more convenient by the duo’s Los Angeles roots. Bear with me for a second when I say that No Age’s fourth full-length, An Object, is more or less a big delicious sandwich of variably introverted and extroverted sounds.
The dynamic between navel-gazey experimental reticence and punk-rock bravado – two extremes that No Age bounces between with satisfying consistency – is among the more interesting tropes that define this album. For long-time fans of the duo, the layers of ambient noise and art-rock screwiness are nothing new. Yet it’s possible that they’ve managed to toe the line between distance and immediacy that much more gracefully. An Object is sure to give listeners plenty of sputtering, shoutable party anthems (and obscure noise to contemplate). Be sure to listen for singer/drummer Dean Spunt’s upside-down bass amp filled with change, as well as guitarist Randy Randall’s fluttery, grating trajectory.
This is 29 minutes of densely packed sound that runs the gamut from screeching, discordant “C’mon, Stimmung” to the almost islandy syncopation in “An Impression.” Other immediate standouts include opening track “No Ground,” which is no less punk rock for all its lack of drums. This, too, might be a theme – that sense of waiting for a pickup or catharsis that doesn’t come. Which really just circles back into the duo’s overwhelming instinct to keep things weird and unpredictable. It’s safe to say that this latest effort by No Age is a highly successful mess of carefully arranged noise. If there ever were a case for active listening, it would probably be at least this juicy and substantial.
Review by Steph Koyfman. Follow her on Twitter at @stephkoyfman.
