No Age: An Object

One quality you can’t always get across on multi-reviewer sites like Paste is that an album might be a disappointment in the context of a band’s own catalog, but still a highlight compared to everyone else’s. No Age is a great band; the level of quality that Dean Spunt and Randy Randall are operating at is greater than most guitar-wielders in 2013 and certainly most rock outfits that loop samples. An Object is more listenable than The Rest because the default point on the sonic grid that these guys work within is an uncommonly warm, sizzling and tuneful sweet spot. This is no guarantee than the next No Age album will be good, and from the sound of it, these guys are getting kind of tired and on the downswing. But in no way does that mean the fall from 2010’s incredible Everything in Between is an abrupt one. Think of Spoon’s Transference, which is better than you remember even if you were too sick of them by then to examine all its corners as deeply as they modestly demanded.