No Age- Everything in Between

No Age could’ve dropped bags of bricks onto the heads of their audience to a fair amount of success and critical acclaim. The group has a rapid fan base at a time when that means something—a time when there is money to be made during tours and at festivals, but not by selling records.

But then, Nouns was practically a punch to the guts anyway. It was capital “I” intense, a reeling sublimation of euphoria and anger into an economical, 30-minute album.

Everything in Between, the band’s third record, is going to make you work harder than that, and No Age makes this clear from the lead, starting with the jangly mid-tempo “Life Prowler,” which is certainly more emotionally ambiguous than “Miner” on Nouns.

On Everything in Between, lyrics are pushed noticeably to the fore, which has its pros and cons. The band is, after all, “punk,” meaning their songwriting is not-too-evocative of anything more than a generally defiant, pissed-off attitude. But the lyrics are also replete with triumphant moments of aphorism, like, “When I reach into/Myself my self comes true.”

Beginning with “Glitter,” Everything in Between plays like a singles compilation, with No Age pulling out every tool in their arsenal and hitting pop pay-dirt. What starts out as inscrutable, over the course of several listens, reveals itself as meticulous music meant to be obsessed over and probably blasted at dangerous decibel rates over car stereo speakers.

It is an essential goal in all two-pieces to sound bigger than the sum of their parts, and No Age’s muscular, dynamic guitar-and-drums rhythmic interplay is up to the task. Even the band’s proclivity for more abstracted instrumental pieces is perfected here, showing a better incorporation of noise and tunefulness on songs like “Dusted,” which is reminiscent of the Sonic Youth albums that don’t make me want to put my head in a microwave.

Really, Everything in Between could have come out any time within the past 20 years, and retroism sounds pretty triumphant in 2010.