Preoccupations

Canadian post-punks Viet Cong have changed their name to Preoccupations and now release a new album. This time, they walked into the studio with the gas gauge near empty, buoyed by one another while the rest of their lives were virtually unrecognizable and rootless. There was no central theme or idea to guide the band's collective cliff jump. As a result, 'Preoccupations' bears the visceral, personal sound of holding onto some steadiness in the midst of changing everything. Opener 'Anxiety' articulates tension: clattering sounds drift into focus, bouncing and echoing off one another until one bone-shattering moment when the full band strikes at once, moving from something untouchable to get to something deeply felt. 'Monotony' moves at a narcoleptic pace by Preoccupations' standards, but snaps to attention to make its point, that "this repetition's killing you // it's killing everyone." 'Stimulation' opens with a snarl and hurls itself forward at what feels like a million