REVIEWS, ‘’

• SPIN Rating: of 10

• • Listen:

    Spotify

Label:

Beware inserting the word dull in the title of your third album. These tracks by singer Jeremy Greenspan and programmer Matt Didemus reveal acute detailing: cresting arpeggios on "Work," pedal-steel blossoms on "Dull to Pause" (that word again), a squelch of '80s boogie underpinning"Hazel." But gone are the tricky negative-space productions of their stunning debut, and even the melancholia of 2006's So This Is Goodbye is tempered. It leaves us with a streamlined New Romantic sound, but one that at times feels like emotional Teflon.

BUY: