Lurid Traversal of Route 7

Call Hoover's sole Dischord album emo if you want -- because that would be right, but not in the washed-out whine sense of the late '90s. Much like the similarly fierce Drive Like Jehu, when Lurid Traversal totally and completely fires up, Hoover are out for blood and sound it: musical aggression amped up high, lyrics clipped, and vocals screamed in usually very high pitches. The Jehu comparison also holds with the sense of obsessive, repetitive structure mixed with occasional time changes in a number of the songs — if Hoover isn't quite as astoundingly epic as the West Coast quartet, the band's work is still far more than mere crash and bash. The group's secret weapon is that the foursome can be quiet when they want to be -- even tender, as the cricket-chirping, then slow, slightly dreamy music that makes up the instrumental "Route 7" shows.