After three consecutive albums with black-and-white covers, the Raveonettes needed a little color. The art on the front of Pe'ahi breaks the cycle with a switchblade floating in a wash of sea-foam green. The music is also flush with new life, surfing along on stadium-size breakbeats and drastic dynamics.
The fatalistic tilt and shoegaze sonics are still intact on the band's seventh album. "Endless Sleeper" recounts a near-drowning experience with echoing, layered vocals, while staccato guitar pokes at walls of distorted fuzz. The melody of "Sisters" is both sweet and disorienting, alternating between gentle strumming and searing feedback.
At times the record drifts into atmospherics, likely the result of bringing on M83 producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, but those moments accentuate the noise shocks on the band's most exciting album in years.
