After a groundbreaking run throughout the 1990s into the early 2000s, Australian instrumental trio Dirty Three slowed down slightly. Their studio albums came fewer and further between, they played live less often, and the bandmembers all pursued other interests and projects. Even still, the singular magic that happens when violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White come together as Dirty Three never went away. Love Changes Everything is the trios first new material in ten years, and continues the streams of beauty, chaos, turmoil, and hopefulness that the band have been untying since they formed in 1992. The album is divided into six pieces, all titled as numbered segments of "Love Changes Everything." Wandering piano takes the place of violin as the lead instrument on more ambient sections like "Love Changes Everything III," with Whites scattershot drumming hammering in the background over an unobtrusive violin loop. The song slowly unpacks itself to include minimal guitar phrases from Turner and equally restrained violin runs from Ellis, all of the players making ample space for each other as the piece drifts by. Theres also subtle use of synthesizers on "Love Changes Everything II," one of the more cloudy and dreamlike pieces here. For the most part, however, the searching, windswept feelings and explosive group dynamics the band have always tapped into are in the forefront more than the new sounds theyre toying with. "Love Changes Everything IV" has the slow, sad, distant sway of some of their most crushingly beautiful creations circa Ocean Songs, and closing track "Love Changes Everything VI" builds in intensity for over ten minutes, tumbling forward with joy, confusion, and relief as the band amplify their playing into a ball of euphoric free-form bliss. Though it comes a decade after the last entry to Dirty Threes ongoing story, Love Changes Everything picks up, as each new chapter of the groups story does, as if no time has passed at all, and the trio keeps flowing naturally forward. ~ Fred Thomas

Rovi