The exciting thing about The Sea and Cake has always been that here's a band that can create a sound that simultaneously rocks its nuts off and is also soothing and is also intricate and intelligent. It's also exciting that all of that is even more true when they play live. As Jon Spencer sang, "It's hot and it's cold and it's...at the same time." On their last record, Everybody, they actually turned the gain up a wee bit on the amps, and somehow contrived to add layers without really sacrificing lightness. On the opening tracks of this new album they seem to be back to a lighter sound, with more space between the notes of the guitar chords, and with no loss of excitement on the songwriting and songplaying side. Then comes the minute-long "CMS Sequence". After that the title track picks up where Everybody left off, the guitars edging into fuzzyland. What this juxtaposition of supposedly different styles shows is that what a lot of critics were calling a change in direction or edgier sound or whatever when that last album came out was nothing really of the sort; rather, it was simply a band with a well-honed style and a confident sense of its ideas and musicianship exploring a parallel street. "Car Alarm" doesn't fade out like the first three tracks do, but instead ends with a bang and gives way to another parallel street on the guitars-and-electronics of Weekend. Each song on this album explores a slightly different musical area—here with electronics, there with steel drums—without deserting the core sound that has defined the uniqueness and appeal of the band for the past fifteen years. If you're already a fan of The Sea and Cake then you'll understand what I'm talking about; if you're not, then you can do worse than giving this record a listen before turning to the back catalogue to see what you've been missing for the past decade and a half.