Cymbals Eat Guitars

"Wanna wake up wanting to listen to records / But those old feelings elude me / I raise a toast to the rock n' roll ghost," sings Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D'Agostino on the hyper-adrenalized "XR," which sounds like a Tonight's the Night outtake recorded at triple speed, with its braying harmonica and spitfire vocal delivery. It's the track that perhaps best captures the spirit of the band's third LP, LOSE, one of coping with abject loss and grief by rediscovering what you've always loved, as difficult as it may be — the redemptive power of music.

"Jackson" kicks off the album in prototypical Cymbals fashion — all allusions to suburban ennui, drugs, and geography. Yet this is a leaner, more sinister Cymbals. The vocals are crisper, the drums more dynamic, the bass more melodic, all buttressed by a sensational see-saw guitar figure that blossoms into a lacerating yet anthemic rocker.

LOSE is a headlong rush of regret sublimated into a grand catharsis.