There’s a small interlude of distorted sounding guitar reminiscent of some punk (not post-punk) seventies bands, but after this, the song “really” starts. It opens with some electronica, which Dan and Tim had been dabbling with over the course of the album, but the bassplaying which throughout the rest of the album was so calculated and “wise” (not to mention distorted after being mastered by Kevin Blacker), is here a lot more like something you’d hear in a Joy Division song short, sharp and quite frankly normal. Strangely enough though, my favourite on the album is “Unholy World”, which at 2:51 (relatively short anyway) sounds like it might not belong from the beginning. It’s quite a short album (47 minutes), especially given that their last album was an hour and a half, but most of the songs here are five or six minutes long. The mystery of the xylophone and the consistency of the drumming that eventually leads into “the real song” was genuinely effecting and that’s so rare for what is basically just an interlude that influences the track after it. The thing that perhaps best led me to feel positively for this album is the sample/xylophone that opens the B-Side.

The Unnatural World consists of a couple tracks that are nothing more than solid and the last track is almost mediocre indeed, I think what appeals most about The Unnatural World is the vibe it gives off. That being said, it’s somewhat inconsistent for a four star album, at least on the A-Side (this was first released on vinyl). Zion Memorial Orchestra’s new album F*ck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything these three form a pretty interesting triangle because (assuming you like punk) if you miss the raw sound of Against Me!’s previous work and are thus disheartened by their biggest album yet, then you might like the hugeness and (occasional) subtlety of The Unnatural World, which is, as a matter of fact, my favourite of the three. You and Powers of Ten) album, which is (so far) one of the most important punk (and yes, it’s punk, not shoegaze) albums of 2014 along with Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Against Me!) and thee Silver Mt. Have a Nice Life is a Connecticut shoegaze/post-punk duo responsible for one of the most hyped albums of 2008, Deathconsciousness and this is their second (not including limited editions Have a Nice Life vs.

A big-sounding album and that’s what I like.

Have a nice life album