Album: White Denim, D (Downtown Records)

Complex and uncompromising, the fourth album by this Texas trio-turned-fourpiece sounds at first like one more piece of clever-clever Pitchfork pop.

Don't be fooled. For while D contains strange time signatures, proggy flute solos and syncopation aplenty, it soon reveals itself to be a work for the heart as well as the mind. The leap forward is due to Austin Jenkins' Nels Cline-like guitar genius, but there are proper songs here that rock, swing and form a transcendental whole.