In Love Again

Ex-Voids second album, 2025s In Love Again, is the work of a band who seem delighted to poke a hole in your expectations as they go along. It opens with a peal of feedback and clattering guitar noise, but by the 30-second mark, "Swansea" has become a glorious exercise in jangle pop with heart-tugging harmonies from Alanna McArdle and Owen Williams that are a perfect match for the bittersweet lyrics. (When they sing, "We both know/If you loved me/You would still be back in England," it manages to be both sorrowful and accusatory, which is just how the bad side of a relationship can feel.) "Pinhead" is a bracing exercise in noisy pop with bursts of guitar Kevin Shields would be happy to call his own, which they follow up with a lively, sweetly sad take on Lucinda Williams "Lonely Girls" that finds a way to make guitar crunch poignant. "Sara" boasts a swagger that threatens to turn into boogie when they turn up the volume, and they put it right next to "Strange Insinuation," which somehow sounds like a bid for the alt-country audience despite the clatter and crunch. Among the few consistencies of In Love Again is the excellence of the songwriting, the utter rightness of the guitar work, and the very winning humanity of McArdle and Williams as guitarists, singers, and tunesmiths. They won well-deserved acclaim for their work in Joanna Gruesome, and Ex-Void has only built on that groups virtues, with both sweet and gnarly guitars, vocals that casually blend with superb effect, melodies that gracefully get stuck in your ears, and enough energy to make this music fly without sounding in any way forced. If Nirvana built a career out of the formula of loud-quiet-loud, then Ex-Void confirm theyve learned the same trick and execute it well, and McArdle and Williams found a rhythm section worthy of their talents in bassist Laurie Foster and drummer George Rothman. Even when they shift gears, which happens often enough on In Love Again, Ex-Voids sense of musical self remains strong, and the understated confidence of this music is well earned. In Love Again is a buzzy indie pop delight, full of surprises that pay off handsomely. ~ Mark Deming