There's a Fire
Longwave's third full-length finds the Brooklyn quintet bypassing what might have been an irrepressible urge for a lot of edgy bands: Instead of cribbing from former buzzband tourmates the Strokes, the Vines and theMooney Suzuki, frontman Steve Schiltz sticks doggedly with what he knows. For fans ofThere's a Fire,that means another opportunity to get submerged in Brit-leaning space-pop that switches rhythmic gears with pleasing regularity from dreamy to driving. Where "Tell Me I'm Wrong" is straight-up pop, whoa-oh chorus and hand-clap percussive bit included, "We're Not Gonna Crack" sneaks up behind it with thrashing guitars and a butchered, diabolical lyric. Similarly, "The Flood" finds Schiltz demoing Bowie disciple-dom with great panache, but two tracks later he's resurrecting the Cure with equal flair. None of this is overheated--the band's hipster insouciance settles as winningly into the quirky indie pop of "Next Plateau" as the guitar rant of the hidden closing track--but the shifts in tempo and temperament call for a controlled listening environment. Where it counts, you'll want to crank it.-Tammy La Gorce