Lenses Alien

VINYL FORMAT. In early 2011, the band settled down to finish writing the follow-up to Why There Are Mountains. Rehearsing and recording demos in a suburban home allowed for a lot of freedom the band hadn't enjoyed in the past. Decamping to the suburbs meant fewer distractions and more time to explore the outer reaches of song structure and melody, and to edit, reign in, and refine those same elements. That refinement and clarity of purpose came in no small part with the guidance of producer John Agnello, and together they set out to craft an album that re-contextualized the band's favored sounds and highlighted underexplored strengths. Lenses Alien, the result of these collaborative explorations, is a stunning example of a band growing into itself – learning to collaborate, becoming more confident. Why There Are Mountains was a record that Joseph D'Agostino made largely on his own, with help from Matt Miller and some other friends and acquaintances that came and went. Lenses Alien is a record that Joseph D'Agostino, Brian Hamilton, Matt Miller, and Matthew Whipple made together, as a band. At its core, Lenses Alien is a marriage of classic pop forms and ambient haze that makes for a stark, dusky psychedelia. It strikes a balance between the archaic and the inviting and is as much a document of doubts and contradictions as of irreverent joy. It's a varied collection of songs that feels handmade – built from the ground up – and it's precisely the album Cymbals Eat Guitars was built to make.