School of Seven Bells: Disconnect from Desire

Label: Ghostly International

Sure, both the Deheza twins and Benjamin Curtis, the trio who make up School of Seven Bells, had lots of experience before forming this group, but we can still marvel at how they've managed to more or less perfect themselves by album No. 2. Disconnect from Desire clarifies every good idea expressed on 2008's Alpinisms -- soaring melodies, spires of guitars and a first-name relationship with MBV-style tectonics. What's different here is a bit hard to describe; call it patience, or perhaps just an awareness that they're as good as they are. "Dial" opens like a blossom, a swarm of fuzz way off in the distance, casting the barest shadow into a world-class pop song. "Heart Is Strange" shows how comfortable and confident SVIIB is in an electronic context, letting a mechanized beat open the border into even broader harmonic popcraft. And the playfully auto-biographical "Babelonia" places those angelic voices in a latter-day Jesus & Mary Chain template. Awesome! (M.L. Thrope)