Lenses Alien by Cymbals Eat Guitars (CD, Oct-2011, Barsuk)

Album Features
UPC:	655173111826
Artist:	Cymbals Eat Guitars
Format:	CD
Release Year:	2011
Record Label:	Barsuk
Genre:	Alternative, Rock & Pop

Track Listing
1. Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)
2. Shore Points
3. Keep Me Waiting
4. Plainclothes
5. Definite Darkness
6. Another Tunguska
7. Current, The
8. Wavelengths
9. Secret Family
10. Gary Condit

Details
Playing Time:	39 min.
Producer:	John Agnello
Distributor:	Redeye Music Distribution
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Personnel: Joseph D'Agostino (vocals, guitar); Brian Hamilton (vocals, guitars, keyboards); Matthew Whipple (vocals, baritone guitar, bass guitar); Matthew Miller (drums, percussion).Audio Mixer: John Agnello.Rather than playing it safe and simply re-creating their 2009 debut, Cymbals Eat Guitars decided to tweak their sound in a moodier direction on their sophomore album, Lenses Alien. Focusing on mining melody from discord, the band's follow-up combines the jangly harmony of Archers of Loaf with the slick precision of the Dismemberment Plan, pinning listeners under a Wall of Sound in songs like "Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)" before letting them explore the wide-open spaces of "The Current." Despite only taking a couple of years to put out a second album, Lenses Alien also feels like an altogether more grown-up record. A lot of the sparkling ebullience that permeated Why There Are Mountains seems to have given way to a darker tone that gives the band a more weathered sound without making them seem jaded or weary. This kind of shift marks Cymbals Eat Guitars as a band that is willing to grow their sound rather than just be content to release the same album again and again, making Lenses Alien an album that's not only a great follow-up to their first album, but a promise of good things yet to come. ~ Gregory Heaney

Editorial Reviews
[T]heir second album will speak to fans of Built to Spill's squall, Superchunk's chug, and Modest Mouse's string-bending strangeness.
Spin

4 stars out of 5 -- Fall in love with any one hook on their complex second album at your own risk, because it'll probably never be repeated.
Alternative Press

3 stars out of 5 -- LENSES ALIEN harnesses the singular vision of singer and guitarist Joseph D'Agostino to finely nuanced, feedback-soused art-rock.
Uncut