Aurora

A band made up of longtime players on the U.S. Northeast D.I.Y. punk and hardcore scene, Brooklyns Lathe of Heaven instead explored dingy, goth-inflected post-punk on their debut album, Bound by Naked Skies, a record that was also immersed in sci-fi themes. (The quartet is named for the Ursula K. Le Guin novel.) While still revealing cited influences like the Cure, Musta Paraati, and A Flock of Seagulls, the follow-up, Aurora, finds them dipping their toes into the more melodic-harmonic, romantic side of these influences -- at least on songs such as "Just Beyond the Reach of Light," "Kaleidoscope," and the title track -- while also slightly expanding subject matter along similar lines. With its bouncy chorus and jangly echo, and lyrics like "Lost in your devotion/Tracing heaven lying next to you," the post-apocalyptic "Aurora" could almost pass for a Smiths-penned track or a song cut from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (although singer Gage Allisons nervy baritone sounds a little nearer to Mark E. Smith or Ian Curtis). The majority of the album, however, dwells in a dark, urgent, cautionary sound and headspace, with a song like "Catatonia" shouting its two-note verses and choruses over doubled guitar riffs, insistent drums, and thrumming bass. "Portrait of a Scorched-Earth" is another anxious, mosh-pit-optional entry, this one dedicated to anti-war sentiment (or perhaps, more specifically, anti-genocide). These ultimately slight variances work together seamlessly as sequenced, with most of the lighter material appearing early and with performances that are nothing if not raw and fervent. The latter trait sets Lathe of Heaven apart from a lot of the artier, more detached acts reviving post-punk in the 2020s. ~ Marcy Donelson