Palberta5000

Album review

If Palberta5000 came out in 1993, it would've been just as great then as it is now. The NY three-piece make music with cheeky hooks that will appeal to fans of Speedy Ortiz and Sleater-Kinney, knotty grooves that call back to Slint, and refracting angles akin to modern-day brain-scramblers like Palm. Their fifth album oscillates between art-school complexity and radical simplicity. It's precise to the point of being obtuse, but it's also knowingly shabby and unpretentious.

A song like the tilt-a-whirling "Big Bad Want" repeats the same phrase, "Yeah I can't pretend what I want," over the same instrumentation for two minutes straight. It's taut, wiry, motorik—any number of adjectives that music snobs reserve for stiff post-punk bands. But the excessive repetition feels more like dead-pan comedy than some humorless stunt, and it's easy to envision the three members trying to keep a straight face while they take the loop for yet another, and then another, spin. Most of the songs get in and out in under two minutes, but the ones that hang around are usually the most memorable.

The harmonies on "Fragile Place" are sung with a hymnal calmness that's reminiscent of the old gospel staple, "Down To The River To Pray," while "Corner Store" bakes girl-group sweetness out of the same ingredients. The penultimate track, "All Over My Face," is the best—more three-part harmonies, an amazingly funky groove, and a jagged main lick that really cuts deep since there's hardly any distorted guitar on the 14 songs that precede it. If you typically like post-punk then you'll probably like this. If you don't like post-punk then you'll love it. © Eli Enis/Qobuz