!!!

Myth Takes

(Warp)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Dance-rock luminaries !!! secured their reputation as a delirium-inducing live act years ago, bolstered by the strength of unstoppable singles like "Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story)" that were marathon blasts of sex, funk, and fizzy electronic energy. The party-hearty eight-piece may always be best experienced in person, but Myth Takes is an impressive attempt at bottling the lightning and turning listeners' living rooms into sweaty dancefloors.

The perfectly calibrated tracks "Must Be the Moon" and "Heart of Hearts" contain the expected doses of hypnotic high-speed beats and psychedelic jamming, streamlined into the relatively succinct runtime of six minutes each. Sandwiched between them, "A New Name"—built around an angular riff and a strutting falsetto—slows down the pace but remains just as inspired.

Frontman Nic Offer takes heat sometimes for his lack of lyrical nuance, but his bawdy narratives and sing-songy rhymes are an essential and effective component of the !!! sound, as when he boasts about a sexual conquest in "Must Be the Moon" ("1 time, 2 time, 3 times, 4 - but really who was keeping score?") only to later reveal that he left his lover unsatisfied ("She said 'You just got me hot / I finished off while you were snoring'").

Though it stumbles twice—on the pedestrian mid-tempo rocker "Sweet Life" and the unnecessarily ambient closer, "Infinifold"—Myth Takes delivers us from dance apathy with infectious insistence. Let someone else soundtrack the comedown; !!! are all about the high.