A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (New CD)

2009 sophomore album from the New York-based Alt Rock band. Exploding Head is 43 mesmerizing minutes of pain as pleasure. You'll be checking the levels on your living room stereo from the moment 'It Is Nothing' pulls everyone in earshot through a vortex of groove-locked rhythms and back-spun power chords. You'll be sucked in and blown away by the paranoid android Pop of the album's first single 'In Your Heart,' the gorgeous gate-crashing melodies of 'Keep Slipping Away,' the Chinese water torture chords of 'Lost Feeling,' the sputtering percussion of 'Everything Always Goes Wrong,' the apocalypse now effects of 'Ego Death,' the sinewy, slightly sinister overtones of the title track, and the firework finale flare-ups of 'I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart.' This release makes up the band's most arousing recording to date.