May You Marry Rich

Colourmusic share a certain aesthetic with TV on the Radio, another band that works well dabbling just outside the lines but with deliberation and a certain kind of knowing. Where TVOTR might fall slightly inside the “pop” boundary with some strokes, these Oklahoma boys stay well on the other side, where the outré sensibility speaks clearly to them. Swinging and swaggering from muscular to majestic, from a light touch to a whomp upside the head, they densely layer racing, pulsing guitars manipulated to sound like blinking neon tubes or the revving engine of a racecar over furious toms and muddy bass riffs. Or, conversely, they weave glistening sheets of keyboards and snaking, hissing streams of electronic percussion (or staccato, bristling snares) into a wall of icy beauty while Ryan Hendrix’s almost-delicate vocals weave in and out, speaking to the concept of “happiness and a theory that we’re not wired to have contentment as our genetic disposition.” Indeed, it’s not a happy album—but it’s not as dark as they warn, either. It’s somewhere in between. And as implied earlier, there's a kind of deliberation and thoughtfulness here that's refreshing and even exciting.