Wallpaper Music

Cheap Time's third full-length, Wallpaper Music, should dispel any concerns fans may have had about the slightly cleaner, less assaultive direction indicated by 2010's glam pop–inspired Fantastic Explanations. Cheap Time is still sputtering and spitting in a garage. Its songs here are crammed with clanging, classic post-punk grit ("Underneath the Fruit Flies," "Hall of Mirrors"), wiry, sneering '77 attitude ("More Cigarettes," "Night to Night," "Another Time"), and acoustic, guitar-beaten, flute- and jaw harp–inflected hippie punk ("Take It If You Want It," "Witches in Stock"). Jeffery Novak's voice is pulled right out of the late '70s; it's a natural sneer that blends the acidic, arty British vibe of Magazine's Howard Devoto with that of Chris Bailey from pioneer Aussie punks The Saints. Musically, some of the more vertiginous, noisy work of these Tennessee boys mimics the dense grind of England's Swell Maps ("Dream It Up"). Cheap Time and Eddy Current Suppression Ring are more than worthy conservators and valedictorian students; they make fantastic music.