They can name themselves after an infamous radical-feminist essay and collaborate with all the cutting-edge visual artists they want, but that doesn’t change the fact that S.C.U.M.’s greatest selling point is a singer, Thomas Cohen, who somehow sounds like a more sexily disenchanted version of the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano. This guitarless London quartet tries to seduce you with darkly ambient keyboard flourishes, ghostly vocals, and a bold disavowal of obvious hooks. ButAgain Into Eyesonly trulyperks up near the end when they call up their inner Psychedelic Furs on more straightforwardly swooning ballads like “Faith Unfolds.”
