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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Autolux

[#] Future Perfect (2004)

Reviewed April 28, 2018

A poppy whirlwind with an airtight tracklisting.

If there's one thing about modern alternative that gets me, it's that it doesn't kick you square in your ass anymore. Lazy, folky guitars, soulless electronica--puts you right to sleep. And that's where Future Perfect gets it right. The first ten seconds of the album is of Carla Azar's steady, pummeling drumwork, all by its lonesome. Bassist Eugene Goreshter's fading, twee vocals pop in with guitars on loan from Failure's Greg Edwards, and later a noise section akin to a bandsaw against sheet metal takes over. Autolux's sonic template is made clear. The band's endured comparisons to My Bloody Valentine since its inception, but the You Made Me Realise era is about the only incarnation Autolux actually resembles. It's well and truly a sound of their own.

The first half of the record are all noise pop gems, but it isn't until "Great Days for the Passenger Element" that it really starts to slipstream into its flow. "Robots in the Garden" is a lightning-quick panic attack, hailing icicles of shrill feedback over cryptic lyrics. "Here Comes Everybody" sneers at hangers-on, which only makes Carla's coo on "Asleep at the Trigger" even gentler by comparison. "Plantlife" is stunningly hypnotic--the more tender side of grey goo, perhaps. And once you've picked yourself up off the floor after "Capital Kind of Strain" manages to wring startling dynamics from a mix this brickwalled, you'll come to realize that, as far as alternative goes, Future Perfect is a goddamn high watermark, indie kids be damned.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"Robots in the Garden", "Plantlife", "Capital Kind of Strain"	"Angry Candy"	Not a fuckin' track

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