The US post-punk quartet films personal torments in cinematic art house quality.
While the dark predecessor ULTIMATE SUCCESS TODAY, recorded pre-pandemic and released in the summer of 2020, with its midlife crisis (unintentionally) set to music by singer Joe Casey, fitted perfectly to the zeitgeist of the then dreary and uncertain present, FORMAL GROWTH IN THE DESERT embodies the next one Casey crisis – albeit for the first time with something like a cathartic conclusion.
On the Detroit band’s sixth album, for example, the 46-year-old deals with the death of his mother and the accompanying move from his parents’ house. In the opener of the superb single “Make Way” one still (briefly) thinks oneself in a post-punk pulp B-side from the THIS IS HARDCORE era, but the following ten tracks by the musically British socialized Americans ignite island material from The Clash up Sleaford Mods.
All the pieces, which are laid out between bar napkin and script sketches and co-produced by guitarist Greg Ahee with his usual twang urge – but also a newly discovered pedal steel passion – culminate in the cinematic flow in the longest and last of the record: The shimmering one is just under five minutes playing time and still emotionally ambiguous “Rain Garden” is the last glimmer of hope song from an open-ended album.