The Gloss

With their sophomore album The Gloss, Montreal trio Cola repeats the formula of minimal but electrifying post-punk they introduced on their 2022 debut Deep in View. Made up of live, roomy captures of the bands straightforward guitar/bass/drum sound palette, sometimes augmented with synth patches or subtle atmospheric sounds, Colas group chemistry once again steers their songs. More aggressive tracks like "Albatross" and "Pallor Tricks" tap into the same dissonant tension as the more angular, artistically minded acts of prime-era Dischord Records roster, with guitarist/singer Tim Darcys spiky vocals being swarmed by the occasional unexpected flutter of Mellotron. The steadily pushing drums, single-note bassline, and cool, disaffected melancholy of album standout "Pulling Quotes" shift from punked-up edginess to early-2000s rock revivalism, recalling the sweetly exhausted melodic sensibilities of the first few Strokes albums. "Keys Down If You Stay" finds a different type of middle ground for Colas sound, tying together their post-punk uneasiness with more experimental, jazz-inflected songwriting approaches. More than any other song on The Gloss, this tune combines all the bands disparate strengths, bringing together spacious playing with Television-levels of precision and in the process transforming anxious street scenes into wide-open clearings. The extended closing track “Bitter Melon” is similar, creating a hypnotic atmosphere of repetition and lingering that goes in and out of form. The song dematerializes more than it ends, its structure falling away piece by piece until all that’s left are several seconds of incessant amp buzz. It’s the final gradient shift in an album where the energy is intrinsic and impossible to miss, but deeper complexities hide in the details that keep changing. ~ Fred Thomas