Tapes 'n Tapes brings us pop tonic for these long, dark winter nights: its third album, "Outside."
The new album doesn't completely recapture the joyful abandon of the Minneapolis quartet's crazy-good first album, "The Loon," but it's a rebound for a band that seemed to disappear from view after a tepid response to its second album, the tense and self-aware 2008 "Walk It Off."
That Dave Fridmann-produced album wasn't bad, but it left the band at a crossroads, and at times it feels like singer-guitarist Josh Grier and friends are unsure which direction to head on "Outside."
The band parted ways with its previous label, eschewed outside help and paid for "Outside" out of its own pocket while recording it last March. While outwardly that's not a great sign, that's pretty much the same way "The Loon" came into existence. They never achieve the magic that gave us such infectious confections as "Just Drums," "Insistor" and "Omaha" from "The Loon," but patience pays off here.
The album starts off nicely with "Badaboom," which skitters along on Jeremy Hanson's sugary cymbal work, then curiously turns glum until the midway point. That's where we find "Outro," a stray instrumental that morphs from a jazzy shuffle to a muscular guitar line and signals more fun on the way.
Up next is single "Freak Out" which with its anxious guitar line, bouncy backbeat and chanted chorus comes closest to those soaring "Loon"-like moments. "Hidee Ho" builds from a lazy walk on the beach into an angry run and "On and On" takes an ominous tone and turns philosophical.
CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: Tapes 'n Tapes shift gears on "The Saddest of All Keys" like a Indy car driver on a road course, slow, then fast, then slow, then fast, changing directions on a whim, all the while building to a dramatic organ-drenched climax. Grier's guitar and voice are a dual threat here, textured and tough and angry, demanding repeated listening to pick out all the good bits.