Disappears had their debut album,
Lux, under their belts for a while before Kranky released it in early 2010. Even so, the jump the band makes on
Guider, released less than a year later, is significant. The title track blasts out of the gate, revealing a nimbler version of the fiery, droning rock the band introduced on
Lux. Before, they sounded like they could pummel a song into the ground, but here it feels like
Disappears shoot their music into the sky. “Not Romantic” flirts with surf before revving guitars and formidable drums come together with wind-tunnel force, while “New Fast”'s nasty fuzz bass gives the song more heft without weighing it down. A psychedelic sheen makes these songs far sleeker than
Lux, but
Disappears sound just as muscular on
Guider, if not more so. The band digs into a Krautrock-tinged lock groove on “Halo” and the 16-minute epic “Revisiting,” managing to make it sound vital and present instead of receding into a hypnotic haze. The brief parting shot “Superstition” reaffirms that
Disappears grew even more powerful between this album and
Lux. Concise yet ambitious,
Guider finds
Disappears firing on all cylinders and going far beyond
Lux's promise. ~ Heather Phares