For a full-record option, Cincinnati’s the Drin have made a 23-song, 75-minute double album that moves among post-punk, dub, goth, kosmische rock and folk without turning the track list into a genre exercise. Start with “I’m Not the Door,” which Pitchfork hears in the unlikely space between the Durutti Column and the Allman Brothers, then try “The Sky Has Lost the Smile,” where Eric Dietrich’s saxophone gradually lifts a swampy guitar figure into stranger air. Read the first substantial review
The running mood is cheerful decline: Dylan McCartney’s sing-speak remains gloomy, while the six-piece band has become more organic and surprisingly buoyant. Seventy-five minutes is a request, not a casual recommendation. Those two tracks will reveal whether the record’s wandering density feels expansive or merely crowded.