Mexico

Still driven by original members Daniel Agust Haraldsson, Birgir Thorarinsson, and Stephan Stephensen, along with relative newcomer Hogni Egilsson, GusGus continue to refine their song-oriented approach on Mexico, their third album for Kompakt. More direct than 2011's Arabian Horse, one of the Cologne label's top sellers of the late 2000s and early 2010s, Mexico plays it straight throughout. All but one selection -- the tugging, gnashing title track, far from a breather amid the album's succession of emotive voices -- is a full-blown song. Just over half the tracks are merely well-produced, enjoyable if not all that stimulating, while others deal knockout blows. Above all others, the ecstatic "Another Life" ("I'm in a daze from your love") is one of the group's best all-time productions, where strings dart around bass drums and hi-hats arranged for a brilliant clamp-and-stomp effect. The immaculate "Airwaves" is an unabashedly festival-ready trance-pop monster that builds momentum in subtle fashion. Taut drums, sparkling synthesizers, and a sweetly spaced-out falsetto chorus make the electro-R&B of "God-Application" as dizzying as anything from Luomo's The Present Lover. Finale "This Is What You Get When You Mess with Love," the only song that doesn't fall within the five- to six-minute range, is lonesome, subdued shuffletech that would fit on a third volume of Kompakt's long-dormant Schaffelfieber compilation series. When GusGus joined Kompakt, the association seemed odd -- almost charitable on the label's part -- but now it makes total sense. ~ Andy Kellman