Quo

Pumice's reputation continues to grow with each new release and Quo is another step forward, at once a classically ramshackle lo-fi psych treat and something that reenergizes the form into something new. Stefan Neville's one-man-band abilities are the key — the stop-start tempo shifts on the opening almost-title track, "Pumicequo," sound like they could be the smooth shiftings of a full act on-stage, and if that effect is easier than ever to create, the point is that Neville's songwriting is the core, with melodies both catchy and wonderfully strange. The choppy flow of Quo works to its advantage — everything feels like an assembled artifact, and the self-consciousness of the approach is handled well in Neville's hands, from what sounds like a clunky edit on the rough chug of "Fort" to the deep echoes and what could be marimba on the amusingly titled "Heavy Punter," which if it's not about a show attendee is a fun image nonetheless. The stylistic twists on the album further fit into both Pumice's general aesthetic and that larger one it follows, from the demi-shanty of "World with Worms" to the balladish "Dogwater" and the acoustic but not serene-sounding "Sick Bay Duvet." The latter tracks show how Neville could play it "straight" in an indie rock universe that tends to value brash clarity (or at least did at the time of the album's release), but even then there's a sense of distance in Neville's vocals, something that instrumentals, like the lovely closing "Beak Remedy," help to emphasize further — that Pumice is, just a little, not quite of this Earth.