High Society
John Schmersal (ex-Brainiac) has upped the ante on the punk rock-synthesizer urgency captured on Enon's innovative debut,Believo!Now with Toko Yasuda (ex-Blonde Redhead) on bass and vocals,High Society's a more varied experiment. Sometimes it pays off quite well--"Window Display," "Disposable Parts," and "Old Dominion"--but the difference between the Yasuda-Schmersal songs is jarring at first. Which isn't such a bad thing--Yasuda's light and innocently girly backup vocals are perfect on "Natural Disasters," and on the riot-inciting, unruly "Salty," the two share more, making it likely that by their next release, the rough edges will be smoothed out.LikeGuided by Voices' Pollard, Schmersal's a prolific pop scientist, but more experimental. Enon mix scathing guitar riffs with well-placed distortion, electronic ephemera, and aBeatles-esque sense of melody. Still, through these 15 tracks, you'll also hearDevoviaRay Davies,TelevisionviaThurston Moore, andCheap Trickas interpreted byBig Black. IfHigh Societywere split into two albums, they'd both be more memorable. Still, as the cover art suggests, what could be more defining for our millennial angst than everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, perfectly confected Prozac nation noise-pop, especially when it sounds this good?--Cyndi Elliott