Album: Irving

The LA-based quintet Irving offer further affirmation of the current renaissance of American indie music, sharing with The Shins an affinity for prickly lyrics allied to enigmatic melodies. Antipathy is a theme throughout this album, along with emotional blackmail, selfishness and ruthlessness: right from the opening "The Gentle Preservation of Children's Minds", the singer is fretting that his partner is turning into "the type of person [she] used to hate", and glancing at his prospective mother-in-law for clues as to how the daughter will turn out. If he's not scheming to break up with someone or exploit them, he's warning them not to rely on him. "I am the worst boy that you've ever had," he admits in the title track: "I'm not the one". Set to a slimmed-down Glitter Band tattoo, it's the most agreeable piece here; elsewhere, "Jen, Nothing Matters To Me" features a chord structure stitched in place by fastidious guitar runs, while the psych-rocky "Situation", with its thwackathon drums, buzzsaw guitar hook and cascading harmonies, would be a prime candidate for a latter-day Nuggets compilation.

DOWNLOAD THIS: "Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers", "Situation"