Clues - Clues

Epic is what you'd want from an Arcade Fire offshoot, and epic is what you shall have. But for an act of such bombast, Clues are remarkably confused about what it is that they want to play so loudly. The first five seconds of aping Death Cab are swiftly steamrollered with half a minute of skewed guitar noise, and both are then abandoned for the remainder of an album of sprawling guitars and the best drum sound this side of Dirty Projectors' Rise Above. Six Organs of Admittance-esque histrionics flash with the gothic polka of the Dresden Dolls and more than a few of their own ideas, and though it is jaded and it is confused, it remains highly listenable. Clues' debut is loaded with singalong content and unpredictability, and if you dig bands that raise their dirty guitars, with skinny fists, to heaven, then Clues are for youse.