Skip to content
Reviews

Asobi Seksu, ‘Fluorescence’ (Polyvinyl)

Asobi Seksu are consis-tently literal with their album titles. For 2009’s Hush, the duo of James Hanna and Yuki Chikudate toned down the guitar overdrive to allow their crystalline songcraft to glimmer. And Fluorescence, their fourth studio album, has an overwhelming brightness — neon synth squiggles illuminate the shoegaze surge of “Counterglow,” while epic centerpiece “Leave the Drummer Out There” is spotlighted by said instrument’s crisp martial beat. But amid the air-raid guitars of the anthemic “Trails,” Chikudate finds space to soar from a hushed coo to an outright howl: “Please, don’t leave me here with nothing.”