Menomena: Mines

Label: Barsuk

It's been three years since the last album by this wonderfully hard-to-pin-down Portland trio, and they've made the most of it: Mines outpaces anything Menomena has done before. Very weird, except for when they're very normal, the 11 songs here lurch gracefully and stumble around conventional structure but always find their way to melody, harmony and rhythm in rewarding ways. "All my life I've run away from those who've begged me to stay," sings -- well, who knows? All three guys in the band sing, and despite typically ornate packaging (love the confounding insert poster -- which speaks to the also-mysterious cover art) they've left out anything resembling a credit. (They have gone on record as being devoted to band-democracy.) That lyric does say a lot about this music's character, though. So what's here? "Five Little Rooms," a creaking yet nimble pop-song-of-sorts that could unite Tom Waits and Bjork fans; "TAOS," a howling tune that descends from arena-rock bombast (briefly calling to mind ELO!) into close-up harmonies and hand-claps; "Tithe," which opens with plinking thumb piano and moves into TV on the Radio terrain; and eight other songs that baffle and amuse in the best of ways. (M.L. Thrope)