52 songs in the space of a year might seem excessive until one casts a brief glance over the last fifty years of pop. The Beatles recorded their first album in a day. John Lennon managed to write, record, mix and release ‘Instant Karma’ in a day. And now, from the doyennes of American nerd culture, we have 18 sonic nuggets, to shine between our ears. As well as the other 34 they’ve already spewed out.
One might consider this a case of severe sonic diarrhoea, if they weren’t all so damned good. Still best known on these shores for 1990’s ‘Birdhouse In Your Soul’, these guys have seen fit here to give us a quasi-concept album, meandering yes for sure, but their hands are always tight on the cerebral steering wheel and their ear for a damned good tune is as sharp as ever.