As you might guess of a gal who titled her 2005 solo album Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom, Lower Dens frontwoman Jana Hunter has some goth in her. "Mutate, deface… The whole shithouse goes up in flames," she sings over gorgeous synth drones on "Nova Anthem," an interstellar dirge that detours from her folksy solo work and her band's guitar-centric debut Twin Hand Movement. It's not all zero-gravity bummers here: "Brains" drives a lively motorik beat through a vocal sandstorm; "Alphabet Song" recalls the trippy pop of The Doors' Strange Days. But weirder is better with this crew; witness the 12-minute apocalyptic dub incantation "In The End Is The Beginning," which locates sublime power in its spacey pessimism.
Listen to Lower Dens' 'Nootropics':
Related• Photos: Random Notes
