CRASH AND BLOOM

Fulton Lights - “Monsters We've Built” A sea-change, a vaulting forward in the songwriting of Andrew Spencer Goldman. He has been a master of sound for as long as I have been listening, but on Healing Waters the songs-as-songs have more substance. These are not in any way "soundscapes" - they are tunes. In places they recall the Flaming Lips' basement anthems, or Stars' bedroom warnings. But these are just touchstones; "Monsters We've Built" is so much noisier than that. There's the crash of demolition, the shriek of tearing metal, an apocalyptic roar. The sound of something ripping through its old skin and taking a deep, deep breath. (Also, he covers David Byrne's “Glass, Concrete and Stone”!)

[buy for a ridiculous $6 (or less!) from Catbird Records]

- Sean Michaels