Caroline Rose keeps finding new ways to sound unhinged in the best sense. This one sprawls across eleven tracks that lurch between art-damaged guitar pop and fidgety drum machine experiments, all of it recorded with John Congleton at Animal Rites in Los Angeles. The title alone tells you where Rose's head is at: strip malls and parking lots refracted through a lens that makes everyday American tedium feel surreal and a bit menacing.
Congleton's production lets the songs breathe without smoothing out their rough edges. Carla Azar's live drums sit next to programmed beats. Zac Rae adds guitar and keys that veer from jagged to almost pretty. Rose's vocals shift registers constantly, sometimes conversational, sometimes pushed to the edge of a shout. Tracks like "Cement Head" and "Conversation with Shiv (AKA liquid k song)" feel deliberately uncomfortable, which is the point. There is a cover of Radiohead's "Everything in its Right Place" at the end, and it sounds nothing like the original.
This is the first release on Rose's own label, SUCK records, which should tell you something about the degree of control at work here. If you have followed Rose this far, you already know whether this is for you. If you have not, start with the earlier records and work your way here.
