Twitching in Time

Personnel: Andrew Rieger (vocals, guitars, percussion); Davey Wrathgabar (guitar, background vocals); Laura Carter (trumpet, piano, keyboards, Moog synthesizer); Peter Alvanos (drums, percussion, background vocals); Matt Garrison (background vocals).
Recording information: Home; The Express Lane; The Glow Recording Studio.
With more than ten albums to their credit by the time of its release, Athens, Georgia lo-fi mavens Elf Power return after nearly four years between records with Twitching in Time. An alumnus of the Elephant 6 collective, which also gave rise to acts such as Neutral Milk Hotel and Of Montreal, they stick to relatively coherent psych-pop for their third outing of the 2010s. The set is catchy but anxious, a mercurial mix of sprightly indie pop, eerie post-punk, psychedelia, and melancholy chamber pop. Still, though lyrics are often concerned about with the state of affairs, a playful spirit endures. That's largely due to earworms like the jaunty "Sniper in the Balcony" whose peppiness betrays lyrics like "And as the bullet hits the person that you think is me/I cannot be found/I've traded places with the clone." The sunny strumming of tunes like "Cold Vines" and "Withered Husk" are also accompanied by antsy observations ("And all the cosmic contemplation makes it worse"). Varied arrangements include the especially trippy "In a Room," which has tambourine, hand drums, and sitar timbres among its mix, and "The Cat Trapped in the Wall," a philosophical country ditty guided by steel and acoustic guitars, along with piano, bass, and drums. Album-opener "Halloween Out Walking" is more ominous, with garbled, blurted tones that interrupt otherwise persistent rhythms. A balanced sequence of 14 songs that clips by without a running into a dry patch, Twitching in Time is likely to gratify fans of the band's other Orange Twin releases. ~ Marcy Donelson