Beautiful Seizure is the debut album from Chicago art-rock trio volcano!, and it's full of unpredictable, volatile compositions that sweep varying styles and moods together like dry leaves before setting them ablaze. Singer and guitarist Aaron With yanks and pops at the strings while showing off his versatile voice, veering between gently lulling and operatic from song to song.

While their many detours might have you thinking volcano! are freeform-- or worse, improvisational-- they're not out to destroy their songs. The melody underneath is always discrete, and the singer's croon is always grounded. After some tentative plucking and plinking in the opener, the cacophonous pummeling and wailing of "Easy Does It" slips in and out of time, making sudden stops for unhinged caterwauling replete with accordion. "Fire Fire" has a more fluid rhythm, beginning with a gorgeous anticipatory stall before the drums fade in and resuscitate a slippery post-rock specter, though not without a percussion break where With asks in a sinister whisper, "What's in gonna take to get your freak on?" before shredding the strings of his guitar.