Who Loves The Sun

About

Noise-rock/nu-metal hybrid Chat Pile’s third album is just as punishing and miserable as <i>God’s Country</i> and <i>Cool World</i>—the difference is that, like Nirvana circa <i>In Utero</i>, they’ve gotten better at making that misery sound catchy. The guitar and vocal hooks are clearer without sacrificing their ugliness (<b>“Shrine,” “Intruder”</b>), and their sense of rhythm and noise is, in itself, sticky in the same way great pop is, turning abstract bits of sound into repeatable sources of pleasure (<b>“Influence,” “Deep Blue”</b>). (Props to guitarist Luther Manhole—surely his given name—for chords and voicings that, distortion aside, basically sound like ’70s European jazz.) Emotionally, the album’s core is the harrowing, eerily funny <b>“Family Funeral,”</b> which calls back to the intensity of <i>God’s Country</i>’s “Why,” arguably the band’s definitive song. Where nu-metal guys seemed to mostly feel sorry for themselves, you get the sense Chat Pile feels awful for the whole wide world.

via Apple Music